Dilation
by Jefardi
Summary: Blake has her eyes dilated and can't read. Black Rose/Ladybug fluff [Cover Art provided by Masheroo/Thatonea]
1. Dune

Blake hated eye exams with a passion. It wasn't that she didn't understand their necessity. It was more along the lines of the aftermath.

Eye dilation.

The bane of her existence, it kept her from reading for _hours_. This was unacceptable in Blake's book. _Really? I need to stop listening to Yang,_ Blake sighed at her own pun. The only reason she did it, was because she couldn't imagine losing the ability to see well enough to read altogether. Hence she went to the eye exams, begrudgingly. Sure she could opt to not have the eye dilation, and pass it over to the next exam, but what If she had some kind of mission going on then and needed to be able to read for the mission? Her old source of salvation had been taken away recently, the eye drops that sped up the eye dilation removal, the doctor citing it was '_too costly to keep in stock'_.

Sighing, Blake closed her book, as she stared dejectedly at the title. The title itself was so blurry, she couldn't even read that. _I was really hoping to spend the weekend reading, but that doesn't seem likely, now does it?_ She had been looking forward to reading it too; supposedly it was one of the great scions of its genre, which made Blake need to read it. The problem was now she couldn't.

"Um... are you okay Blake?" a curious voice asked. Blake turned her head to see a redhead peeking over the bunk bed, Ruby. Blake's team leader, and her partner's little sister, the red themed scythe wielder had decided to stay inside to finish up studying for a upcoming test. Not by her choice, but when Weiss threatened her cookie supply, Ruby had gotten serious.

Blake responded in a quiet, small voice, "No".

"Are you sick? Do we need to get a doctor? Should I go get Yang? I think she knows what to do, I mean she is sorta better at taking ca-"

"I can't read" Blake interrupted, frustration high in her voice.

Ruby stared at Blake with large eyes, full of shock, "W-what?"

"I had my eye exam today, they dilated my eyes. I can't read" Blake felt like crying, she had a good book in front of her, and a whole day off. She had finished her homework and studying last night, but completely forgot until this morning about the eye exam.

"I could read it for you!"

Blake tiled her head, "Huh?"

Determination entered Ruby's eyes, "Yang used to read me stories all the time! I could read you your book!" gesturing to the thick paperback that Blake held.

Blake thought about it; _it'd be a lot slower than reading it myself, but, well it's not like there is anything else for me to do, plus it might be fun?_ She scooted over on her bed before patting a spot next to her, "Sure".

"Yay!" Ruby jumped up onto the bed, and plopped down next to Blake, picking up the book. "So where were you?" she asked, flipping through the pages.

"I got… here" Blake pointed, hoping she judged the words, or rather the squiggly lines accurately.

"It was a warm night at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stones that had served the Atreides family…"

xXx

Ruby told a story of family and woe, tragedy and action to Blake, making hilarious voices for whenever a character talked, horribly mispronouncing every noun. But Blake didn't care. It was more fun then what she thought it was going to be, she stopped trying to read the words on the page hours ago, contently listening to Ruby's interpretation of the story.

Cracking an eye open, she realized the dilation had worn off, as she could read the words on the page. Ruby gave her a glance at Blake's movement, before doing a double take;

"Hey your pupils are back to normal size now!"

Blake looked at Ruby, then the book and back at Ruby. "I still can't read, would…would you mind reading some more for me?"

"Of course!" Ruby nodded vigorously before going back to the tale of Muad'Dib.

Blake felt no guilt over that lie as she listened to Ruby's voice. _Maybe getting my eyes dilated wasn't a bad thing?_ Blake pondered to the sounds of tale.

* * *

AU: Hey look random fluff inspired by an eye appointment! I may write some more, and turn this story into a collection of fluff. Which would be entirely based around Ruby/Blake, Pyrrha/Ruby and Blake/Pyrrha. Also, I'm working diligently on chapter 10 for Skyros, I swear I'm not slacking off! Have a good one!


	2. Tuna

Ruby knew something was up. Young she maybe, but she knew when something was up. It seemed like one of her teammates was gone a lot. To be fair Blake was gone a lot to begin with, usually off to the library, but Ruby had double checked there, and couldn't find the team ninja.

"Was it something I did?" Ruby muttered dejectedly to herself as she wandered through the halls of Beacon.

It wasn't just Blake either, Yang and Weiss had been acting… weird. But at least they were around! Ruby swore she only saw the girl at classes.

Sighing loudly, Ruby opened the door to their room. Yang was loudly playing the newest shooter game, much to Weiss' annoyance as she tried, tried being the keyword, to review the notes she had taken for Professor Port's class. Still no Blake.

"Has anyone seen Blake?"

Yang paused her game as she looked over at Ruby, "Isn't she at the library?"

Ruby shook her head, "I can't find her anywhere."

xXx

Blake had most definitely been up to something. In fact she had been up to something for the past week. After having her eyes dilated, she wanted to thank Ruby. The problem was what to do. Seeing as Ruby's partner was Weiss, Blake asked Weiss first, what does Ruby like. The "are you daft?" look Weiss gave her before leaving had been…troubling. Naturally she then went to her own partner, Yang, since Blake figured that Ruby's older sister would know what she wanted.

"What up Oreo?" Yang asked, after Blake had pulled her aside. Blake had gotten used to the constant teasing of her partner, merely shrugging it off.

"What does Ruby like?"

A twinkle entered Yang's eye, as her mouth formed a smirk, "Ohohoho, is someone taking an interest?"

Blake knew she needed to squash the teasing at its source, else it would never end, "Look, I owe her, okay?"

"Sureeeeeeee you do Blakey". Blake didn't respond to her partner, merely staring at Yang. "Cookies"

"I beg your pardon?"

Yang raised a eyebrow, "Ruby loves cookies, go buy her some and you can bribe her to do pretty much anything… how else do you think Weiss gets her to study?" Blake nodded vigorously, it all made sense now.

Blake had never been big on making her own food. Living with the White Fang meant eating a lot of MREs, or quick meals. Sure she had cookies before, but they had merely been a substance to fuel her, and had been at hand. If she was going to give Ruby cookies, they were going to be of a high quality. Blake lacked lien, living off the scholarship that she was able to get for coming to Beacon, so she couldn't very well buy them. That left making them herself.

That was the plan at least, as Blake stared at the student kitchen. She had found some recipes for cookies in a number of books she had found in the library, which sat in a stack nearly reaching the ceiling. Following the directions was simple enough; in fact, the whole scenario had gone without incident Blake thought, as she watched the cookies cool.

Now it was the moment of truth. Tentatively reaching out, she picked up one of the warm ones, taking a small bite. _Not bad_. The gooey chocolate chip cookie melted into her mouth as she took another bite.

_It's good_, Blake thought, _but it's lacking… something._

xXx

A week of experimentation later, and Blake felt she had perfected it. To be fair, she could only do so much taste testing herself; she had tried to rope in Weiss and Yang at first, but after the second batch they had complained, loudly, that it was too much. Blake had carried on, alone.

Glancing down at her scroll, she wondered when Ruby was going to get here. _I did tell her to meet me in the kitchen in fifteen minutes… it's been nearly twenty, where is she?_ That was answered by the door opening, and a red themed team leader bursting in, "I'm sorry I fell asleep and Yang didn't wake me up even though my scroll was going off, but then I woke up and it was you, now I'm late, please don't be mad!"

Blake raised an amused eyebrow to Ruby's ramble, "I made cookies for you."

"I'm really rea-" Ruby stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes going from that of flitting around, to enlarging into large silver pools as she stared at Blake, "REALLY?!"

"Yes, they are almost do- gawk" Blake was interrupted by the smaller girl tackling her with a hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" was all Ruby could say as she hugged the taller girl.

_**Ding**_

"The cookies are done Ruby… would you like some?" Blake inquired in an amused tone as she extracted herself from the hug.

Blake could swear she could see drool coming out of Ruby's mouth, "Please!" Blake pulled the tray out of the oven, she set it on the counter. Ruby went to grab a cookie before looking at Blake, her head cocked to a side, "Wait, why did you make me cookies?"

The older girl blushed slightly as she responded in a quiet tone, "…because you read to me…"

A goofy smile graced Ruby's face, "You needed help and I gave it, you didn't have to make me cookies… not that I'm complaining!" With that Ruby started to consume them. Blake wouldn't hesitate to say 'shoveled', as the cookies seemed to be sucked into the vacuum that is commonly referred to Ruby's mouth.

Ruby's face was that of pure joy and happiness, however, the rate of cookie consumption slowed, as her face started to change of that of betrayal, before she stopped eating them altogether. _Did I make them wrong?_ Blake quickly took one of the cookies off the tray and took a bite. _No they taste as divine as ever._

"Blake… what did you put into these cookies?" Ruby's face was serious, more serious then Blake had ever seen it before. It scared Blake to see the younger girl so serious.

"F-flour, salt, vanilla extract" Blake gestured to each of the ingredients that were sitting out, "baking soda, butter," Ruby nodded to each of these as Blake continued to go through the list, "sugar, eggs and tuna?"

"AHHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahaha" the door to the student kitchen opened, as Yang fell through it, into the room, laughing.

Ruby's face twitched, "Why…why did you use tuna?"

_Did I do something wrong? No I followed the directions!_ Nervously Blake pulled out one of the cooking books she had checked out of the library, and flipped open to the bookmarked page. Pointing to the line, Ruby looked at the directions, "I-it said to use chocolate chips, or walnuts, or raisins or something special…what's more special then tuna?"

* * *

AU: I might do more of these, they are pretty fun! A special thanks to Miss Krahka for the tuna idea. As for Skyros...expect a chapter sunday or monday, life got busy :(


	3. Cup holder

Blake was nervous. In her time of need, Ruby had come to her aid, and read to her. In return she had made cookies. _Really, really good cookies if I do say so myself_. But somewhere along the lines she had screwed up. Apparently not everyone considers tuna to be a good replacement for chocolate. Okay only Blake did, but that was some damn fine tuna. Now Blake felt doubly bad, because Ruby was sick from the tuna cookies. She didn't know how, Blake had the rest of the cookies, and she felt fine.

She needed to make it right for Ruby. To that end she had enlisted the help of Weiss, seeing as Yang was currently taking care of a very sick Ruby.

Weiss put it simply, "Anything involving Crescent Rose"

Blake raised an eyebrow, "You mean…weapon modifications?"

The heiress curtly nodded, "Yes, although she combs every store for them, she never has enough lien to get the really pricey mods."

Blake nervously rubbed her hands together, looking down pensively, "Right…" _These mods sound really REALLY expensive…I only have a few hundred lien to my name… crap_. However, Blake heard someone sighing and the sound of rummaging through pockets.

"Here" Blake looked up to see Weiss with a wad of lien, holding the money out to her. It was a LOT of lien, more then she had seen in her entire life. She couldn't but help to stare at the proffered money. "I'm not just doing it for you; it'll get Ruby to annoy you instead of me, so here, take it." Weiss all but pushed the lien into Blake's hand before storming off.

xXx

When Blake found herself at the weapon store, she was uncertain. Weiss had given… her a lot. More than she really wanted to know. She knew that Crescent Rose was a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe, which meant there should be standardized modifications for it. Yet looking around the store, she could only find a few, and they were NOT cheap.

_Maybe I should of asked Yang, she'd know what Ruby had or didn't have… _

In the end she bought everything she could find for it, even buying so much the store clerk let her get something from the grab bag container in the front. Compared to everything else, it was all stuff worth maybe five lien, Blake grabbed something without so much as looking at, throwing it into the huge bag of weapon modifications she had bought.

xXx

Blake's head popped through the doorway to the RWBY dorm room, "Ruby?"

A rather sickly looking Ruby stared back, drinking orange juice. _Is she still mad at the tuna cookies? _

"Um… I got you some weapon mods?" Ruby perked up, a trail of roses appeared as Ruby crowded around Blake

"OOoooo are they in the bags? Can I see? Pretty pleaseeeee?" There was a twinkle in her eyes, like a kid getting presents for Christmas. Blake smiled, _Yes, did not screw up this time!_ Handing over the huge bag to Ruby, the young leader started to rifle through it.

"Optical scope good up to 1500 meters…36 inch folding blade… new bolt model… striped stock… " Ruby listed off each of these as she went through the mound of mods. Blake was starting to worry again._ Ruby doesn't seem as excited… did she already have all of this? I got what Weiss said…_ Ruby pulled out the last of the modifications, _She doesn't look as excited as she was… I think she had all of them already, cr-_

"YOU FOUND IT!"

Blake considered herself a very well educated, and particularly good with words, having a huge vocabulary, supplemented by years of reading, yet, "Buh-wha?"

Ruby pulled out the mod that Blake had grabbed with no mind out of the grab bag, it looked like some kind of holder for a cylindrical container, probably for dust. _But Ruby doesn't use dust like that… only Weiss does I thought._

"I've been trying to find this for ages!" Ruby cooed as she went to fit it onto Crescent Rose. A few minutes later it was on, and Blake still had no idea what it did. Until Ruby put her orange juice into it.

A cup holder.

* * *

AU: I think I'm super clever, but this was kind of a stretch I think? Anywho, its funny fluff to me. Updates might be slower then every day now. Sorry :(

Should I continue this? I could make this a actual story, and have them get together, or just keep doing vaguely connected fluff one-shot chapters?

If I could tag this as Friendship/Romance/Humour I would, but alas, I refuse to exclude either Friendship or Romance, as Blake and Ruby are gonna end up together, but aren't at this point...what do you guys and gals think?


	4. Scissors

Today was the day of the drunks. At least that was what Blake thought as she attempted to navigate her way to the library. There were books to be read, and darn it, rowdy people were not going to get in the way of Blake's pursuit of knowledge! One does not get in the way of Blake's pursuit of knowledge.

Then her scrolls started to ring. Oh joy. _Oh, it's Ruby._ Answering it, "Yes, Ruby?"

"HELP!" followed by static.

Blake raised an eyebrow, "Um…what?"

"Yang! Drunk! Snakes!" Blake sighed. She should know that Yang had decided today was the day to party like the rest of Beacon's campus. Regardless of the legal drinking age.

"Where is she?" I guess my pursuit of knowledge shall have to wait…

"The cliffs! Bring scissors!"

xXx

"Yanggggggg stop!" Ruby was trying her best to get her big sister from going and, quote, "destroying all snakes". _What does that EVEN mean?! What does she have against snakes?! _The problem was Ruby was a 5'2 small girl, while Yang could easily bench-press Ruby, with one arm. So try as Ruby might, her clinging to Yang was not stopping her from heading towards the Emerald forest to destroy "snakes". Pushing against Yang, did not stop her. Ruby had naturally called for help. At first she had called Weiss, because Weiss was her partner. However Weiss hadn't answered her scroll. That Blake was natural next choice.

"Ruby, Ruby, Ruby" Yang drawled, "It's the holiday of booze and snake punching!"

Ruby tugged tighter on Yang, trying to get her to stop her advance towards the forest, "Yanggggggggggggggggggg"

"I WANT TO PUNCH SNAKES DARN IT!" _When was Blake going to get here?_

xXx

Blake came across her partner and her partner's sister stumbling towards the Emerald forest. Well, in Ruby's case, it was closer to being dragged there.

Shaking her head, "Yang, please stop."

The blonde's head lazily turned towards her, "Blakeyyyyyyy, wanna go punch some snakes?"

Blake face palmed, "No Yang, let's go back."

Yang shook her head, "I got things to punch!"

Ruby let go of Yang before running over to Blake, "Did you bring what I asked?" she whispered.

Blake waggled an eyebrow before revealing a pair orange scissors. The gleeful look on Ruby's face was terrifying, as the smaller girl teleported to in front of Yang, before making a menacing gesture, "Snakes or hair, what's it going to be Yang?"

Yang's eyes had gotten large, reminding Blake of a deer caught in the headlights, as the blonde started to back away from Ruby, "Um…umm….. ummmm…..". Ruby took a step forward, snipping the scissors menacingly at her bigger sister, "Hair?" before Yang ambled off towards Beacon, fearful of her bane.

Ruby sighed in relief, handing back the scissors, "Thanks Blake!"

"No problem" Blake took the scissors back, and started to head off, to return to her pursuit of knowledge. However a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Ruby. "Yes?"

"Um… you might wanna be wary…" Ruby sheepishly explained, "Yang can sorta hold grudges when you threaten her hair, and you may of sorta done that sorta."

Blake hmphed at that, "I'll be fine."

* * *

AU: Dun-dun-dunnnnnnn. Yeah okay, I randomly wanted to do a St. Patty's day drabble. Its not my best work, and I can admit that. However, this is a two part, for Yang will get her vengeance! I swear my next chapter will be better thought out!


	5. Dragonballs

Class was boring.

Ruby Rose sighed as she checked the clock for the bazillionth time. She had been under the notion that she'd no longer have to sit through boring classes when she entered Beacon academy. Oh how wrong she was. Instead, she found herself sitting through one of professor Port's classes, watching a grainy black and white film about someone with an impressive looking mustache, who supposedly smelled of cabbages? As long as she stayed conscious, she'd pass the class.

But it was so boringgggggg.

Looking at her assorted friend, she looked for inspiration of how to survive. Weiss, Ren and Pyrrha were taking notes, dutifully. Jaune was struggling to take notes while Nora was playing paper football with Yang.

"Psssst!" Yang looked over at her with lilac eyes. "Can I join?" Ruby whispered. Yang glanced towards Weiss before back to Ruby. Weiss was looking at Ruby, giving her the 'you-better-not' stare. Ruby sullenly turned back to the film. For all of thirty seconds.

There was only one left, Blake. She seemed to be taking notes, but Ruby was wiser then that! She could see the older girl glance into the book she held in her lap every few seconds. Sometimes she'd change the book, pulling a new one out of her bag. _Maybe I could borrow a book? But I can't ask, 'cause Weiss will know… think Ruby think! Aha! Operation Not-die-by-boredom is a go!_

Stealthily, ever so stealthily, Ruby reached into Blake's bag, grabbing the top book as stealthily as she could. Pulling it out of the bag and into her lap without being seen, Ruby had to stifle a triumphant cry. Eager to experience the pay-off of such a successful operation, she slowly, oh so very slowly opened her newly acquired plunder.

It was a story of five ninja brothers, on a quest to get-

"Whatca ya reading sis?"

"Ack!" Ruby flailed over not realizing her sister had been looming over her, falling sideways out the chair. Looking around, students were filing out of the classroom, signaling the end of class.

Weiss shook her head at her partner, "And here I thought you were paying attention!" On the other hand Blake regarded her with a most curious expression.

Actually what AM I reading? I never saw the title. Closing the book she read the title, "Ninjas of Love X-" she didn't even finish the title before Blake darted forward and snatched the book, eyes frantic as she stuffed it into her bag as fast as possible.

Yang looked at Blake, then Ruby before back to Blake, noticing her growing blush, "Blakey, what did you let my sister read?" taking a step towards her partner, Yang's voice became more forceful, "It better not be some of that raunchy stuff you have, else we are going to have something to talk about."

Blake stared her partner down, failing to keep a straight face as panic could clearly be seen setting in. Which didn't make sense to Ruby, she had only read about two ninjas with a deeply conflicting friendship… of some kind?

"Ruby," Yang hovered in front of Ruby, "what was in the book?"

"Um…um…it was some ninjas who kept touching people's balls-" Yang's eyes turned red in protective sibling rage as Blake made an expeditious retreat.

"BLAKE BELLADONNA! GET BACK HERE!" The blonde ran off after the black haired girl.

"-to summon a dragon…I think?"

* * *

AU: Something something interesting? I don't know this hit my head randomly. Blake is going to be in some deeeeeep trouble when Yang finally finishes her masterful payback plan. Until then, have a good one people!

Man, this is an obscure reference I was making, its to the Red Army's purple ninjas the Murasaki brothers in Dragon ball. For some reason my head didn't immediately go to Naruto, but rather to minor-ish villians from Dragonball who are perverts. Yeah, random. I apologize to those that I made this unclear with.


	6. Vale WeapoCon I

Yang Xiao Long had prepared.

Her hair had been threatened and therefore someone had to pay. The culprits had been Blake and Ruby. Her very own partner and little sister, her own blood! Betrayal of the highest degree. Ruby could get away with it, she is family after all, but Blake had to own up to her actions.

So Yang had waited and watched. Waited for the perfect time to get her revenge. She had studied her target well. Taken notes even. She had come to the conclusion that there is one thing that Blake Belladonna feared.

Dogs.

For reasons Yang STILL couldn't figure out, her partner did not like dogs. When Ruby would find some adorable puppy video on the dustnet and try and show everyone, Blake would back away. Oddly enough the ice queen of the team tried her best to watch while not appearing to watch. A note for another antic.

She made a hypothesis and had tested it even, sending endless cute animal video links to Blake over the course of a month, and peeped at which ones she watched. A couple of the links were even mislabelled as cats when it reality it was dogs. Blake would scowl or jump and close the window. With this in mind, Yang had made her plan.

Her plan hinged on three factors; getting a dog, keeping Blake in a enclosed space with said dog and keeping people from interfering.

The first part was easy. Yang and Ruby's family dog, Zwei, was over due for a visit to the school anyways. The second and third parts were trickier, but Yang had time to plan. Oh how she had time to plan this.

* * *

_Ughhhhhh why is the alarm going off its a Saturday..._

Blake rolled over in her bed as she flailed her arms at the source of the offending noise, in a vain attempt to turn it off. After much failure she finally managed to turn the blasted thing off. _I get to sleep in today. Then reading time. Perfect Saturday. Ruby is at some weapon convention, Weiss is off studying and Yang said she had some party to go to. Back to sleep, read later._ Giving a stretch and a yawn, Blake refamiliarized herself with the oh-so-very comfortable pillow she had.

_**Bark**_

Blake's eyes shot open at the sound, as she cautiously, ever so cautiously peered over the edge of her bed. There was a small fuzzy ball of grey and white sitting in the middle of the dorm floor, staring at her. With those beady eyes, drooling over all she held sacred, it was a demon-monster sent straight from the infernal fires of hell! It had seen her and now it was getting up, as it started plod towards her, it's target had been acquired.

Fearfully, Blake covered herself with her only defense, her blanket as she edged away from the hell-spawn. As it left view it jumped onto the bed and came closer and closer to her. Plotting her demise with its fiendish mind. Her back was pressed up against the wall, Blake had ran out of room to retreat with. It was stepping on her now as it got closer, how much closer could it get, what kind of diabolical schemes could the demon-monster be plotting-

It licked her face.

"No." Blake whimpered as she tried to retreat from it. This was going to be a bad, bad, baddddd day.

* * *

All was going to plan to Yang. Truthfully part three of the plan wasn't that hard. Weiss was going to be studying anyways. The weapon convention was a small lie she had told Ruby, knowing her little sister would not check the actual event before going to it. _Think about it as payback for the scissors..._

Yang had put small cameras in the room so she could watch the events unfold...

* * *

Blake was still pinned down, trapped by the hell-spawn on her own bed, as it taunted her. _I have to distract it! But how?! They are so wily!_ Looking around, Blake found the only thing she could think to distract it with. Gently picking up her favourite book of the best series of all time, she tossed it lightly out of the bed and onto the floor. The sound was enough to cause the hellion to look away. Enough to let Blake make her escape!

Jumping up with unimaginable speed, she rushed to the door of the dorm. She could seek refuge in team JNPR's dorm. _Yes, they'd protect me from the demon-monster!_ However there was a snag in that plan. The door wouldn't open. Eyes wide in fear, Blake rushed over to the window. _Sure it might be less then normal to leave through the window but what other options does this...this...creature leave me?!_ Once more she found resistance as the door wouldn't open.

_Refuge in the bathroom perhaps?_ The door to the bathroom wouldn't open either. There was no escape. Turning slowly around, **_it_ **was still there. Staring at her, staring into her soul. There was no where to run.

* * *

_Aww Yang must of gotten the wrong date. Its not going to be happening until a month from now._ Ruby thought glumly as she trudged slowly through the Beacon hallways. She had woken up early, really early, to got to the Vale WeapoCon, she'd even convinced Jaune to go with her! But when she got to it, it turned out to be the wrong date. With that thought in mind, she had decided to go make some of the biggest puppy dog eyes for Yang for being a meanie about it. _She might even give me pity cookies!_

As she turned the corner in the hall, she noticed something strange. There was a chair propped up against door.

"I wonder who put that there?" Moving the chair, the door creaked open revealing... revealing... well Ruby wasn't quite sure as the moment the door started to open a rather panicked looking Blake collided with her, knocking the pair to the ground.

"There is a demon-monster!" Blake gestured wildly into their room. Ruby cocked her head as she got up and slowly walked into the room, Crescent Rose drawn and ready for combat. Blake hid behind her, peeking out over the red-hood of her leader.

There was nothing in the room.

Ruby regarded Blake, "A-are you okay? There's nothing in here..." All Blake could do was look at Ruby and then the room and back at Ruby, her mouth opening and closing several times as words were beyond her.

"T-the land animal beast thing was in there, I swear!"

* * *

"All good things must come to an end I suppose..." Yang sighed. She was in the team RWBY bathroom, holding her adorable fluff ball of a dog, Zwei, surrounded by computer screens connected to the cameras.

Looking at the corgi, "Now how to get you back to Patch without anyone noticing..."

* * *

AU: This is appropriate for April fools update/chapter I think. Special thanks to Super Saiyan Cyndaquil for some help in this chapter.


	7. Warm Milk

Ruby was wide awake in the middle of the night.

It might have been only a nightmare, but it had been a really really scary nightmare. Sure she had the occasional nightmare or rather bad dream, but to wake up covered in cold sweat, wide eyed in terror, barely managing to stifle a scream… it had been bad. It reminded her of when she used to wake up in the middle of the night, crying, sleep ever so tantalizing close yet outside of her reach. Back then she'd wake up Yang, who'd comfort her.

Glancing at her big sister's bunk, Yang was snoring loudly, the smell of partying and liquor emanating from that half of the room was strong. _I should just let her sleep. _

Sighing softly, Ruby rolled to a more comfy position on her bed in another bid for sleep. Closing her eyes, she slowed her breathing as sleep came to take her once more…

…

…

…

_Why am I still awake? Sleep usually comes so easy…. _

Ruby could fall asleep with easy on most days, whether it was in class, or while studying or really whenever. Yet it eluded her now. It may have been because she couldn't help but think of the dream she had awoken from, snippets of the vivid experience floating through her head.

…_Weiss taking back what she had said…she had failed as a leader… Blake leaving… team RWBY disbanded…Yang gone…_

She shook her head at the thoughts, _No! I haven't failed, not yet!_ Taking a deep breath in and letting it out, Ruby calmed down_. But I will fail Professor Port's exam if I don't get some sleep… maybe some milk will help?_

Slowly shuffling off her bed as to not wake the others, a sleepy Ruby shuffled off to the student kitchen.

Amber eyes tracked her.

* * *

Blake was used to sleeping in all kinds of situations; it came with being a former member of a… less than legal group. In that regard she was also a bit of a light sleeper. It took a while for her to learn how to tune out her partner's snores, but it certain things still pulled Blake from unconsciousness. The creaky of ropes straining as Ruby left her bed for instance.

Briefly opening her eyes, the feline faunus noticed her team's sleepy leader not head to the bathroom but out of the RWBY dorm itself.

_I wonder where she could be going…_

As Blake pondered the pitter patter of Ruby's feet slowly went out of Blake's senses, even her feline ears. A minute passed. Then another.

Curiosity was getting the better of Blake as she found herself leaving the soft embrace of her bed and quietly opening the door to the hallway. No sign of Ruby. Scratch that, there was a faint glow of lightning coming from the common areas. Silently she went towards the common areas for the first years.

She found herself in a spacious lounge, complete with several attached rooms. The light was coming from one of the attached rooms, the student kitchen. The door had been left barely ajar, a thin slice of light emitting from it.

* * *

_That tasted good,_ Ruby thought as she finished off a glass of warm milk. It was calming to her, for reasons she didn't fully comprehend. Relaxing. It wasn-

_**Creak**_

The door's groaning as it opened startled her, making her jump. The girl in question flailed about, falling off her stool onto the tile floor. "Ow." Looking up at source of the noise, it was Blake. "H-hi?"

The girl in question cocked an eyebrow at the team leader sprawled on the floor, before helping Ruby to her feet. Glancing at the now empty milk glass, Blake regarded Ruby, "Late night cookie run?"

Ruby shook her head, "Nope, just some standard warm milk… buttttt…." A new thought entered the girl's head, "that sounds like a good plan!" With that she started to head for where the cookies were kept, across the room.

A soft smile tugged at Blake's mouth as she shook her head, Ruby's enthusiasm for cookies was endearing to say the least. The smile turned into a small frown, "Can't sleep?"

Anxiety started to return, the brief solace of the unexpected was gone, "Um…heh…um…" Ruby's approach to the cookies slowed to a stop. The all too familiar of panic was starting to edge into Ruby's mind.

"Ruby?" She could hear Blake getting closer.

"…yea…" Ruby shyly admitted, turning around, her silver eyes meeting a concerned faced Blake's gaze. "…Stupid nightmares..."

"About the Port's test? I know Weiss can get a bit… overbearing, but she really did prepare you well for it, you shouldn't be worrying…" Blake trailed off waiting for the red head to say something.

"Nu-uh, it's not about Port's test its…its…" the anxiety was no longer on the edge of Ruby's mind, having melted into full-blown out worry, "…I just…worry that sometimes I might not be the team leader you guys deserve." The red-themed girl's shoulders slumped as she despaired, her vision starting to get watery, "That'll I'll let you down and everyone will leave…"

A warmth enveloped Ruby, a welcoming warmth, as her black haired teammate gave the girl a hug. Not the bone crushing, rib breaking ones that Yang gave her, or that awkward hug that Nora had dared Jaune to give the young girl. Rather it was a gentle, comforting one. "Ruby, you know Yang will never abandon you. Neither will I." Blake gave soft squeeze, "Even Weiss wouldn't."

Ruby sniffled as she returned the embrace, her watery vision started to return to normal vision. It was reassuring to be told that, regardless of how silly "Thanks Blake."

"It's no problem."

It was a few minutes before Ruby's eyes dried and they finally split, the warmth of the contact leaving the younger girl, as another thought entered her head. "Hey Blake?"

"Hm?" Blake peered inquisitively at her.

"C-can you do me a favour?"

In return she got a reassuring smile. "Sure"

"Could…could you read me a story?" The fact that Blake didn't respond right away made the already worn out girl's anxiety increase," I mean you don't have, but I'd really li-"

"What would you like me to read?" A grin graced the older girl's face as she waited for a response.

* * *

A few minutes later Ruby found herself leaning slightly on Blake as the elder girl opened a book. A book of fantasy, adventure and magic. It was a story that Ruby had read herself many many times, not just Yang reading it to her. Every time it gave her solace from worry.

Leaning in more to hear Blake's quiet voice, the story stopped briefly, as the storyteller had to reposition her arm to turn the page, ending up draping the arm over Ruby, steering her thoughts to the still vivid memory of warmth.

It kept the worry away as Ruby started to drift into sleep.

* * *

AU: Hey look a not funny chapter. Yeah this is far more... well, I don't know, I guess serious? Sure lets go with that word. Honestly I wanted to do this, but couldn't think about how to do it without some punch line undercutting the mood of the chapter.

As some of the people who follow multiple stories of mine (such as Alturial, who literally can favourite and follow my stories before even I, the author can see them publicly) may notice I have actual story covers for my stories now. In this case, my cover art for Dilation is provided by the wonderful Masheroo/Thatonea.


	8. Ribbon I

Gambol Shroud.

It was the one weapon on her team that Ruby had yet to use.

Besides Crescent Rose, there was Ember Cecilia, Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud, each belonging to a different member of team RWBY. Obviously Crescent Rose was the best weapon in Ruby's own objective opinion. Although all of them were pretty cool.

Ember Cecilia; Ruby nagged Yang until she could hold it the moment Yang had brought it home from Signal. After Crescent Rose, Ruby could say she knew Ember Cecilia the second best. Not that she could use it very well, the blowback from it throwing her body around like a ragdoll.

Myrtenaster. Weiss' weapon. An elegant fencer's weapon with a number of dust cartridges were built into it. It had taken a month to convince Weiss to let her so much as touch it. The resulting fire cone caused by the wrong button press most likely meant Ruby would never touch it again, but that was fine, she had at least gotten to handle it. Worst case scenario, she could another chance sometime during the rest of their lives at Beacon.

To much of her own disgrace, she hadn't gotten Blake to let her handle Gambol shroud yet. At least until she had made promises of tuna. Lots and lots of tuna. _She really likes tuna, seriously._

* * *

"…hold it like this…" Blake repositioned Ruby's right hand on Gambol Shroud's hilt. Then moving Ruby's other hand to properly grip sheath of it in a reverse grip, "you swing this at the same time". Taking a step back she observed Ruby cut a target dummy in half.

A victorious grin appeared at the result. "Okay so how do I use…these?" Ruby gestured to the long black ribbon the older girl had tied to her right arm.

"You need to flick your wrist"

The red-themed girl flicked her wrist with zero results. Then again with the same result. A frown replaced her grin. The soft clacking of Blake's heels sounded as she came to help.

Gently grabbing Ruby's wrist, she mimed the motion at a slow pace. "Try that" Blake gave an encouraging smile as she backed away again.

Blake had barely gotten half a foot before Ruby flicked her wrist. Gambol Shroud responded, turning into in essence a chained sword, twirling in the air.

A victorious grin would have appeared on Ruby's face at the effort, had it not been for the fact that Blake was still next to her as the long ribbon spun around. It didn't hit Blake, rather, it started to unfurl as far as it could go before wrapping around her and Ruby, as Ruby lost control of the Gambol Shroud.

…leaving Blake and Ruby tied together by a rather strong and sturdy ribbon.

"I-I-I'm sorry I'm s-sorry!" a embarrassed Ruby started to stammer " I didn't l-listen and now we're all tie-"

"This is GOLD!"

A new voice interrupted Ruby, as the two girls turned to the source as best they could;

Yang Xiao Long. Full of mirth and holding her scroll up, with audible snapping noises as she spammed the picture button.

* * *

AU: Special thanks to Super Saiyan Cyndaquil for the idea! Have a great ladybug Thursday!


	9. Vale WeapoCon II

For the fifth time in as many minutes, Blake questioned why she was awake and on a airbus headed to Vale at 6am. On a Saturday morning.

* * *

"Yanggggggggggggggggggggggg", Ruby's voice whined, a pout already forming, "You said you were going to come with me…"

Blake eyed the two over the top of her book.

"Sis, I said 'Maybe', not that I was going."

"But…but….but…but you said!" the frown was quite clear to Blake even from across the room.

The elder sibling sighed, "I'm really sorry Ruby, you know I would if I could, but…." Yang held up a coloured slip of paper. Any student of Beacon would recognize it. A detention.

The younger sister slumped her shoulders, clearly dejected. "Whose gonna go with me to the con…"

It wasn't Weiss. Earlier in the semester, Ruby had somehow convinced Weiss to accompany her to small weapon convention. When they had returned, Blake could only describe Weiss as having a thousand yard stare and muttering about a 'flame sword incident'.

With a bigger convention coming up, Ruby wanted someone to tag along with her. The wrench thrown into this plan was a mistimed prank that may have ended in Professor Goodwitch covered in food instead of the team's Heiress. Hence the detention slip.

Blake tried to go back to reading, she really did try, yet her focus kept on getting pulled to a sad faced Ruby being told that it'd still be fun to go alone to the Vale WeaponCon. It was evident to Blake that Ruby was only halfheartedly agreeing.

Looking up from her book, Blake saw Ruby as expected. Unexpectedly, she was about five inches away from Blake's face. Barely controlling the urge to jump back, Blake cocked a eyebrow, "Yes?"

"Whatcaaaaaaaaa ya doin' tomorrow?" Ruby stared at her with curious silver eyes.

Amber eyes blinked in surprise, "Um, nothing a-"

"So you'll go with me to the con then?" the curious silver orbs had turned into hopeful ones, a tone of pleading had entered Ruby's voice.

* * *

_It wasn't like I could say no… she was going to drag me to it regardless._

Blake looked over to the seat next her. Blake may have been half asleep, but Ruby most certainly was not. Rather she was brimming with excitement, fidgeting in her seat, checking the clock on her scroll every five seconds. It was kinda cute.

"I can't wait to see Atlas' exhibit!" Ruby started to chatter excitedly, if only to fill the silence, "Issue 229 of Weapons said that they had some kind of new Atlesian Knight that was going to showcase!"

The comment caused Blake to think back to her last mission as part of the White Fang. "Hmph, I'd hope so. The AK-130 models were a joke."

Ruby gave Blake a funny look as it dawned on the black hair teen that she had said that out loud. Before she could even get a word in edge wise, Ruby voice shot off, talking a mile a minute, "Well yea, they're old but they are also pretty cool, I mean their hands turn into swords! Although they have a slow reaction timing, but it just means they can think more before they act…"

_This was going to be a long day…_

* * *

As much as Blake had been less then excited to go with Ruby to the Vale WeaponCon, it had turned out to be pretty great. While Ruby may of literally of dragged Blake around the convention floor, it was different from what Blake would have done on a Saturday. It gave a nice break from spending the day cooped up in a library.

Blake had gotten to see a side of Ruby that many others didn't. Ruby was a giant weapons nut, no one would deny that. Yet what Blake had been able to do today was take part in her hobby, admittedly she didn't know what she was doing half the time; Ruby had mostly used her to lug weapon parts around or to help compare some small detail of a display weapon to Crescent Rose.

More importantly, as Ruby snoozed, having fallen asleep against Blake's shoulder, it had been fun.

* * *

AU: I finally did a Dilation chapter. Honestly I had trouble with this chapter, which shouldn't happen considering this is honestly barely a step above drabbles. I may edit this chapter later due to me feeling that it was rather lackluster. I'm going to get my sleep deprived self some rest before I even touch any kind of massive re-edit.


	10. Math

Ruby Rose was having a bad day.

It wasn't that anything in particular had gone bad, nothing major; Crescent Rose was fine, a calming weight in its holster. Yang was fine, Blake was fine, and Weiss was fine.

Just the little things had built and built up. Yang hogging the shower in the morning, a less than average test grade, a pop quiz, fumbling a bit during sparring class, tripping into Weiss… things that individually held little input but together made for a less than stellar day.

Plus the mountain of homework that sat in front of her was not helping Ruby's day improve at all. Sighing loudly, she turned her attention back to her current assignment, a #1-39 from chapter five of her math book, the book unopened...

_Man, those kids on the cover look like they are having so much fun, but it's all lies!_

Flipping the book open, she stared at the problems with a uncomprehending glare. It looked like gibberish to her._ In my defense I paid attention in class… it's just… math isn't my strong suit._ It was true, math was literally Ruby Rose's worst class. While Beacon Academy was definitely a school dedicated to helping forge huntresses and hunters, it was still an institution built on education. Regardless of how specialized a university it was, there were still general education classes that were mandatory. Hence Ruby's predicament.

_Might as well get it over with_, releasing another loud sigh, Ruby started to try and decipher the script that was her math book.

Her efforts did not go unnoticed however…

* * *

Blake had noticed that Ruby was having a less than stellar day. It might be how Yang had hogged the shower, the fact that Ruby had knocked over Weiss resulting in a Weiss-polsion. _Heck, Ruby even tripped over Crescent Rose during a sparring match… and she never messes up like that!_ Something was definitely off.

A loud sighing pulled Blake out of her thoughts. Her frown furrowed, _this is a library, people should know better than to be loud_. Looking around to see who the perpetrator was, her eyes locked on her sad looking team leader. Surrounded by sheets of paper and a… math book? Even Blake knew that without Weiss' help, Ruby would of failed the math class they shared several times over. With Weiss nowhere in sight, it was clear that Ruby was floundering at it; at least if the audible sighs were any indicator.

As if a light bulb went off in Blake's head, she had an idea on how to at least make the day better for her friend.

* * *

Ruby had gotten through exactly two of the problems in the last hour. With a dejected face, her head fell forward into the math book.

"This is hopeless…"

"Taking a nap?"

Ruby bolted up, startled by the new voice, "N-n-no, I'm not taking a nap! No sir! I'm just working o-on…" her sentence fell off part way through as she recognized the speaker to be Blake. Her expression brightened, "Hiya Blake! What are you doing here?"

Blake quirked a eyebrow at her, "I was reading, but I thought that you might need some help w-"

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Relief flooded Ruby's face as her savior had arrvived. The relief turned to confusion as said savior just stood there, hands behind her back, giving Ruby a amused grin… "Um…is something wrong?"

"I also brought a study aid…" Blake's hands out from behind her back... _with two trays of cookies!_

Ruby Rose's day was no longer a _complete_ waste.

* * *

AU: Welp, that was a fun bit of fluff, have a good day everyone!


	11. Ribbon II

It had challenged Ruby Rose.

Ruby considered herself to be many things. A connoisseur of cookies. A little sister. A team leader. A friend to many. An admirer of weapons.

It wasn't just interest in knowing how a weapon worked that drove her in this specific quest, but rather her duty as a team leader. After all, shouldn't she know the full capabilities of each of her teammates' weapons?

Ember Celica, she knew its workings inside and out and in theory knew how Myrtenaster worked, really just a focus point for Weiss' dust. Gambol Shroud on the other hand… the way it handled confused Ruby.

_Okay maybe not confused, but it's just… Different!_

With that thought in mind, Ruby found herself holding a mock-up of her black hair teammate's weapon, trying to figure out the chained sword movements.

* * *

Blake had noticed Ruby was disappearing, the girl being gone after classes ended for the day. Not that there was anything in particular wrong with that, just usually the energetic team leader was around more often. While Weiss welcomed the silence and Yang had thought Ruby was out making new friends, Blake was worried.

It wasn't like her to disappear without a trace, at least in Blake's eyes. Her thoughts went back to what had happened to team JNPR's leader. _Maybe Ruby is being bullied?_ Blake dismissed the thought; Yang would introduce a new definition of pain to anyone foolish enough to bully Ruby. Recently Blake had been growing closer to the younger girl, but it was hard to spend time with her, when she couldn't _find_ Ruby.

A sound drew Blake out of her mullings. One of the perks of being a Faunus, amongst the many downsides, aka; discrimination, was having better senses then the average human. For Blake it was both sight and hearing. Right now she was hearing the very distinct sounds of a familiar person calling out for help.

_Ruby._

Blake sprinted towards the sound, shoving students left and right as she barreled through the crowded hallways, towards a unused storage room. _Oh Oum, she is being bullied!_ Her thoughts were in a panic over what could be happening to Ruby.

Bursting through the door, the sight that greeted her was… unexpected.

Ruby was standing in the middle of the disused storage room, bound by an odd looking rope. Yet no one was around her. _Did they just leave her here?!_

Rushing over to Ruby's side, Blake started to undo the rope, "Who did this?" not even giving Ruby a chance to respond, "Was it Cardin? I'll…I'll…what?"

A replica of Gambol Shroud was at the end of the rope. She couldn't help but to stare at it. _Who would even make this?_

"I… I... uh…was practicing?"

Blake raised a eyebrow as Ruby nervously looked away.

"S-s-so this didn't happen...again..."

Blake face palmed.

* * *

AU: Random drabble is quite random. Have a drabble this weekend guys and girls!

Expect Acceptance chapter 6 soonish.


	12. Hunted I

Ruby Rose was not afraid of many things. She was a fearless huntress extraordinaire; wielding a weapon easily larger then herself with an easy that even the older students of Beacon Academy could only view with jealousy. She had decapitated a Nevermore, faced hordes of beowolves and dealt with Weiss failing a test.

Yet, as she watched a few of Yang's strands of hair float to the ground, she couldn't but help feel a shot of fear. Not fear for herself, no, Ruby was wise enough to not cause that. Rather, she was quite afraid for the one holding the cutting tool. Blake Belladonna.

By no means had Blake intentionally cut off her partner's hair, at least Ruby hoped, accidents do happen during friendly sparring practices after all.

The yellow strands of hair floated to the ground, silence engulfed the room. All eyes on Yang as her face morphed through several expressions; shock, sadness, betrayal and finally anger.

Ruby was very scared now for Blake. Sure, Blake wasn't her partner; heck Blake was the person by all means Ruby should know the least on her team, after Yang and Weiss. However Blake and Ruby had grown closer over the past few months, perhaps closer than Ruby was to Weiss. Ruby didn't want to see her friend get hurt. Besides it was her duty as a team leader to do something.

* * *

Blake was confused as she seemingly teleported away from the training room. Or why Ruby was carrying her. _Wait…what?_

"Ruby? Wha-"

Ruby shook her head, "Talk later hide now!" followed by a burst of speed. _Right, Ruby's semblance is speed... what are we running from?_

Blake cocked her head, _why would I need to hide?_ "H-hide?"

_**CRASH!**_

Even without Blake's faunus ears, she could have been able explosion of a door being busted off its hinges. "Wha-whats going on?"

The girl didn't respond as she swerved through a corner, not quite successfully, bringing Blake with her as the two tumbled into an open door. It wasn't a particularly big room, in fact it was positively small, in essence a broom closet.

Ruby scrambled up, slamming the door close, the room went dark. Well, not dark for Blake; she could see in the dark after all. As Blake slowly pulled herself up, she watched Ruby put her ear to the door.

Waiting. Listening for something or someone?

It didn't take long for Blake to figure out who it was, when she started to hear the loud _**clack clack**_ of boots on the hallway floor, a very familiar sound to her. Especially given that it was the sound Yang's boots made.

Around this point the events were starting to catch up in Blake's brain. _Why are we hiding from Yang? Last I remember we were sparring, and then….and then…._ The yellow hair falling the ground flashed back to Blake, _…oh._

"You're safe, she's gone now." Ruby's quiet voice filled the small room.

"Is she always like that?"

Ruby nodded, "Yup, never mess with her hair, only bad things will come of it." Even in the dark, Blake could only describe as a 'thousand-yard-stare' in the red themed girl's eyes.

Shaking the sight out of her head, Blake opened the door, "Well, let's get out of her-"

It didn't budge.

They were locked in the closet.

* * *

AU: I actually have a plan for this. Like, legitimately I have a plan for this. Multi-part bit. Yes I know that this could totally be done in one chapter, but I write Dilation in small bits usually.


	13. Hunted II

Blake stared at the door as she tried to turn the handle again.

It still didn't budge.

"Blake?" Ruby looked towards where the door handle was, _although its off by nearly a foo- right she can't see_. It sometimes slipped Blake's mind that most people she knew now could not in fact see in the dark. It was a different experience compared to being in the White Fang where night time missions might of well as been done in the day.

"We're locked in" Blake stated matter-of-factly.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Ruby dove for the door handle, or would have if she could actually see it. Rather, she ended up running head first into Blake, knocking the duo over into a pile of cleaning supplies.

Blake lay still for a few seconds as Ruby scrambled off of her. It was clear as day that Ruby was…blushing? _Huh, I wonder why she'd be blushing…_

"So..um…um…. what should we do?"

Blake cocked her head as she thought, "We could call Weiss." Ruby nodded vigorously at the thought, the action decidedly cute in Blake's mind. However Ruby's face became crestfallen, "Um, Blake, uh, do you, uh… know where we are?"

"No…?" Blake's eyes widened, "…which means we wouldn't even know where to tell her to go." Sighing loudly, Blake pulled out her scroll, "might as well tell her to start looking now". As the device lit up she noticed something very VERY off. In the glass reflection she could see herself. Yet, problematically her attire was missing something. Something extremely critical to her safety and perhaps even her mental well-being.

The bow was gone.

Internally Blake started to panic, _crap crap crap, where is it?! Can Ruby see the ears!?_ The small rational part of her brain jumped into action, turning off the scroll immediately. Blake studied Ruby in the dark; the girl was rubbing her eyes, maybe the bright light blinded her?

"Weren't you going to call Weiss?"

Blake's mind was moving at a thousand thoughts a second as she sought out a suitable excuse, "The scroll died," _Genius_! "I forgot to charge it last night."

Ruby nodded in understanding, "Yang forgets to charge hers' all the time," The Faunus had to repress letting out an audible sigh of relief, _that was a close one! _"Good thing I charged mine then!"

Panic returned in full force to Blake, I need to cover them! The Faunus did the first thing that came to mind, she put her hands over her ears. The room lit up in a dim glow, mostly centered on Ruby's face as her eyes dilated to see in the new light. As she looked around the small closet Ruby's gaze focused on Blake, concern dawning in her expression. "Are you okay?!"

Blake blinked, "Yes… I…" her life flashed before her eyes, "Hit my head when I fell over."

Concern turned into guilt on Ruby's face, "I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" _Now I feel bad!_ "It'll never happen again! I promise! I'll make you those tuna cookies you really like!" _She looks like a kicked puppy, and I don't even like puppies,_ "I'll m-"

"Its fine" Blake's calm voice cut into the erratic tone of Ruby's, "Its fine… just call Weiss so we can leave."

Ruby slowly nodded as she laboriously started to pull up Weiss' number. Meanwhile Blake was silently and discretely scanning where she had landed. The light from the scroll made it hard to search, either her night vision was having interference from the light, or her normal vision couldn't see well enough in the darkness.

She started to tune out Ruby when Weiss came on the scroll, looking for the little piece of black fabric that kept her secret. Where is it?! Blake eyed the pile of cleaning supplies she had fallen into. It was hard to see anything distinct in the small scroll light. The light turned off as silence reigned in the room. Blake turned towards Ruby; the scroll was closed up in her hand as the girl stared at it.

"I'm really sorry Blake… I didn't mean to hurt you." Ruby's voice was barely above a whisper. "Please don't be mad at me."

One part of Blake wanted to console Ruby; she really didn't want Ruby to feel guilty about a non-existing injury. On the other hand, she really reallyyyy wanted to keep her secret, well, a secret. "Ruby, its fine. Really. It just stings a l-"

In between two mops was the bow.

Realizing she had stopped in mid-sentence, Blake continued, "it just stings a little, that's all." Silently and ever so slowly Blake reached down and picked it up. A wave of relief washed over her with the bow safely in her possession again. _Now time to put it back on and I'll be fine. I'll be fine!_

Ruby seemed to freeze for a second before letting out a clenched sigh of relief as she leaned against the wall, "Ok-"

_**Click!**_

An old single light bulb flickered on above them, as Ruby leaned on the light switch.

Time slowed for Blake as Ruby blinked at the sudden flood of light before staring at the top of Blake's head. Specifically the top of her head, where her black bow usually was. A detached part of her brain realized that her hands were holding the bow still. Both hands.

Panic returned and then some to her mind.

* * *

AU: One of the few things I tried to make very clear is that this is Volume 1. Not Volume 2.

Holy moly guys and gals, I've gotten a lot of reviews last chapter. I'd debate doing more cliffhangers intentionally but this was already planned out as a multi-chapter thing. Also this is significantly longer then most of my Dilation chapters (looking at ZurichianAnimations).

I plain to post the next chapter around...I dunno, June 1st or so? Something like that. I'd love to here why you guys and gals thought of this chapter... its definitely a different type of thing for this story. Did you like it or not?


	14. Hunted III

Ruby had gone through a number of emotions over the last ten minutes. At first there had been excitement as she had watched Blake and Yang go at each other during a sparring match. That had led to fear as Blake had managed to cut off a few strands of Yang's hair. Fear morphed into guilt as Ruby was certain that she had hurt Blake's head. Finally she was feeling shock; _it's not every day you find out that your teammate has kitty ears._

She couldn't help but stare at the fuzzy black ears sticking out of the top of Blake's head. _Does that mean she is a Faunus?_

"Buh-wha?"

That was as much as she could get out, not very coherent but a good representation of Ruby's mind. Ruby watched; fascinated as the furry cat ears twitched to her voice breaking the silence. They were most definitely real, _and_ _most definitely cute_ Ruby numbly decided.

* * *

Blake on the other hand was not having a myriad of emotions; rather it was panic and fear which was just occurring in progressively larger quantities. It felt like her mind was on overdrive, as if someone had just poured in nitro and slammed down on the accelerator. What made it worse was the lack of any response from the younger girl. _She must hate me._

The Faunus had hoped, had HOPED, that someday she could come clean with her team. When Blake had signed up for Beacon Academy, she had a hope for possibly being placed on a team with another Faunus, or even just non-bigoted humans. That had been dashed when a certain Heiress was placed on her team.

Yet it hadn't been all bad; Yang was an amazing partner, puns notwithstanding. Weiss was…manageable, she was cordial enough to work with and that was about all that could be said for that. Then there was Ruby.

Ruby Rose, the girl who was standing in shock in front of her, staring at Blake's ears unable to formulate anything to say. It was a look of someone trying to understand, as Ruby tilted her head, eyes narrowed in what could only be accusation. _I thought she'd be the most understanding too…_

It wasn't like Blake had wanted to hide who she is; _I just didn't want to get picked on…_ No, that wasn't the reason if Blake was being truthful with herself.

_I wanted to be normal._

After so many years being separated from society, for doing black ops missions for the White Fang, Blake craved normalcy. To have friends, a bed to sleep in, to go to school, to not live a life in the shadows.

A small part of Blake had always known eventually someone would find out, that at some point she'd have to tell her teammates, her friends. _I always thought it'd be Ruby I'd tell first. Looks like my wish came true_, Blake thought with more than a little sarcasm.

There had been a few close calls, more then once when she'd come out of the shower and had nearly taken two steps into the dorm room without her bow before realizing. Fortunately no one had seen her each time.

A fleeting thought entered Blake's mind, a dark thought_, maybe if I give her a knock in the head, she'll forget? _The fact that Blake even gave it a second thought was horrifying to her, as she squashed as fast as it appeared.

Still, Ruby stared at Blake, not saying anything besides a sputter or two. The silence felt like a palpable pain to Blake. Ruby, probably one of her closest friends- No, she is my closest friend,- wasn't saying anything. Just staring at her Faunus ears. At the mark of distinction between Blake and everyone she knew at Beacon. Staring at that… _that thing_, that made people call her an animal.

* * *

A sound broke the silence of the closet.

Ruby's gaze finally left Blake's cat ears as the sound repeated itself, then again with more urgency. The girl's eyes were drawn to the source of the noise. Ruby's eyes did not have to travel very far before finding the source; Blake was softly sobbing as she hugged herself.

The wonderment that had been etched into Ruby's mind vanished into concern, "B-Blake ar-"

"I get it, okay", Blake's tone was harsh. Harsher then Ruby had ever heard it. It made the girl flinch. "I'm just some sub-sentient Faunus to you now." The hurt was dripping out of her voice to Ruby, the younger girl's eyes going wide "I've lied to you and now you can't trust me. I get it." Ruby could see the tears fall off Blake's face as her tone became colder, more detached. "I'll tell Yang and Weiss before I leav-"

* * *

Blake was interrupted before she could finish, Ruby knocking her over, again. _Does she hate me that much-_ Her line of thought stopped as she realized this was not something meant to hurt her, but rather a hug.

"Nope!"

Blake blinked in confusion as Ruby's arms all but clamped onto her, binding her in place. "Wh-"

"Blake, why would I- why would any of us want you to leave?" The confusion in Ruby's voice only served to confuse Blake more. _Why would she be confused?! She should be angry!_

An emotion, almost like anger boiled suddenly in Blake as she struggled in Ruby's arms, "Because I lied to you! Because I'm a Faunus! I saw you, you were speechless, you could have said something, anything!" Anger was boiling into a red veiled rage within Blake. "But all you could do was just stare at my ears! Don't try saying yo-"

"That's because they're cute." Ruby's quiet voice breaks Blake mid-stride. Blake's anger evaporated on the spot, as Ruby's head tilted into Blake's view. Ruby's tear streaked face obliterated whatever anger that was left in Blake. "I was staring because they're cute."

"They're cute?" Blake dumbly parroted it back to Ruby.

Ruby nodded, a blush forming on her face, "Yeah."

"Oh" Blake was left without any words to say as a matching blush formed on her face. Out of every reaction she had expected, this was not one of them.

Ruby slowly continued, "You're Blake to me, regardless if you're a Faunus or human." She hugged tighter as Blake finally started to return the hug. "I still trust you."

Relief flooded Blake as she basked in the warmth of the hug. A few seconds later, she felt herself drain as the emotion toll finally started to take effect.

"Thank you"

Out of the vast vocabulary that Blake possessed, it was all she could say. Ruby gave her a giant goofy smile, "No pro-"

_**Click**_

The door started to open.

* * *

AU: OH CLIFF HANGERS YOU ARE SO VERY FUN!

Yes I actually have even MORE CONTENT for the little mini-arc. Content that deserves a different chapter for reasons I will explain in the next chapter which should be Thursday-ish? Or so?

Thank you for the many reviews! You guys and gals are amazing!


	15. Hunted IV

Ruby Rose was fast.

Perhaps it was a byproduct of her semblance, or perhaps she was just inherently quick at thinking. Whatever the case may be the panic that flashed onto Blake's face, as the door opened made something very clear to the young girl.

Blake wasn't quite ready for others to know her secret. Or at the very least not be found out by accident.

The horrified look on Blake's face as she tried to tie the bow on her head was telling enough to Ruby.

Ruby knew what she needed to do.

* * *

Blake's vision was covered by a stream of red cloth, a new silky weight rested over her head. It took her a minute to realize what was obscuring her vision.

It was Ruby's cloak.

The amount of gratitude she felt for the girl was huge. It wouldn't be good for Blake's emotionally drained mind to have _another_ person find out without her control. _At least twice in the same day._ As Blake's fingers fumbled with her bow, the loud voice of the duo's saviour rang out.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THERE?! HAS IT BEEN DAYS?! WEEKS?!"

Blake's mouth opened and closed as she tried to find words, her fingers robotically tying the bow on her head as her mind's distress was no longer mucking with her coordination. Pulling off the cloak from her now concealed ears revealed…_ Nora?_

_What. _

The more verbose of the pair came out of surprise first, "Nora… you saw us like… an hour ago." Ruby pointed out as Blake handed back the girl's cloak, "…wait how'd you find us?" _That is a good question; why would she even be looking for us in the first place?_

"Oh!" Nora nodded her head rapidly as she took a step out of the closet to yell at something hidden from both Ruby and Blake's view, "I FOUND THEM!" before turning back to the two. "Ren and I bumped into Weiss who was trying to find you, and then Ren mentioned I was really good at finding things, and Weiss said she'd pay me thirty pancakes if I found you in ten minutes."

"Rea-"

"OF COURSE I ACCEPTED FOR THE CHALLENGE!" Nora's volume level skyrocketed as the yelling startled everyone on that half of Beacon as she shook a fist. A triumphant gleam entered Nora's eyes, "and I found you two~"

Having finally recovered from well… Nora, Blake quietly spoke, "That you did."

"Yuuuup!" Nora took a brief glance out into the hall before looking at Ruby, "Could you pleaseeeee tell Weiss I expect my pancakes by dinner?" Ruby slowly nodded, "Alrighty seeya two later!" With that, a smiling Nora skipped off down the hall.

Ruby and Blake looked at each other before that Ruby spoke up, "Well… that was a thing." The black hair girl nodded. "I hope Yang isn't too… angry stil-"

"I'm still positively yangry."

A new voice, not belonging to Ruby, Blake, Nora or even Weiss. A red eyed Yang loomed over the two, blocking their exit from the closet, casting a slight shadow over the duo from the hallway lights, even with the single small light bulb in the closet on. If Blake's ears weren't covered by her black bow, she'd be certain they would be flattening right now.

Ruby scrambled off Blake, her mind already plotting Blake's escape from the confines of the room… but before she could act, Yang held out a…a… _a pair of scissors?_

"An eye for an eye" Yang's tone was dead serious, and if her gleaming red eyes were any indicator she was being serious, her usual teasing smirk replaced by a frown.

Blake raised an eyebrow as she took the pair of scissors and cut off a small strand of hair. Still bigger then what she thought had cut off of Yang's. "Better?"

Immediately Yang's eyes returned to their normal lilac colour, the smirk returning to her face, "Yup." A brief second later, Yang's eyes seemed to dilate, "Soooo what were you two lovebirds up to in here?"

Blake felt her face turn red as Ruby started to sputter, "Wha- whaaaa no no no, ew! We were hiding from you not…um... not kissing or anything!"

Yang's smirk turned into a Cheshire cat smile, "Who said anything about kissing lil sis?"

"We were talking." Blake looked her partner straight in the eyes, "In other news Weiss is in Nora's debt now." Blake could only compare her partner's face as a starving person set in front of banquet, unable to decide which plate to pounce first.

"Speaking of Weiss…" Ruby spoke up, not allowing Yang to start teasing the two again, "where is she?"

"YANG XIAO LONG YOU LOCKED ME ON THE ROOF!" A shrill voice rang out as an angry Weiss stormed at the blond haired girl, Myrtenaster drawn, the dust chamber already spinning.

"I…heh…" Yang sheepishly backed away from the smaller girl as the heiress stalked towards the towering blond, "I may have wanted to find you two firs-THAT'S COLD OW OW OW!"

Even as Blake watched her partner get pelted by ice shards, she couldn't help feel relief. _Someone finally knows my secret._ Better yet, that someone hadn't reacted with disgust. _Quite the opposite in fact_, as Blake blushed at her ears being called cute.

* * *

AU: Welp. That was a bit of a odd ride wasn't it? I mean, the fact that I did a series of fairly linear chapters instead of just drabbles, the usual format of _Dilation_. Moreover actual things happened in this, instead of just fairly pointless fluff. I remember way back around the second or third chapter I said something to the extent of "I might be turning this into an actual story." Well, this is the result. My current plan is I have a half dozen actual story chapters to do in the future, similar to this mini-story arc. However, they will not happen for a while, rather, I will be returning _Dilation_ to its usual chapter format, albeit with a bit more character building.

I have to apologize for this particular chapter. My intention was to have this chapter be part of the previous chapter. When I went to write chapter 14 however, I essentially ran out of time and came to the realization that either I was going to downplay it or make it, its own chapter. In the end I decided to go the separate chapter route as you can see. For that reason it caused a cliffhanger that was rather... unnecessary in my own opinion, and for that I have to apologize.

If you didn't know, _Dilation_ is sort of an experiment for me. I write it when I am feeling writer's block, with the criteria being I finish each chapter in less then an hour. The average chapter takes only about thirty to forty minutes. If I'm not feeling the flow, the chapter gets trashed and I restart with a new idea, although that wasn't possible in the past for chapters, although that particular issue never came up.

So now this is the part where I have to ask the question that I've been wondering; how successful or interesting was this change up in format? Was it entertaining? Was the last chapter a bit too...er... well, campy? I know I slightly overdid Blake's reaction. Okay a lot. She was being a complete drama kitty and more then a little of character by my own admission. As always feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for putting up with the cliffhangers!


	16. Stars

Blake would like to consider herself as an observant individual.

It came with being a being trained to hunt monsters, a survival instinct some would say. Yet in all of the years of her life, Blake had never noticed one thing, one huge thing that was always there. It may have been the fact that Blake had spent most of her life in a city, or even that she had just not simply took the time to look up, but it was still shocking all the same to her.

Team RWBY may have been camping for a weekend, but it didn't mean it was a relaxing trip. After all, it was a school assignment in Grimm infested woods. Naturally, everyone took shifts on watch.

When Blake's turn came, she found Ruby not staring into the woods for Grimm, but staring up. A quick glance up answered the question of why.

Stars.

Suddenly Blake felt very small as she could see the vast reaches of the stars, as they peppered throughout the night's sky, providing a slight illumination to the world. Constellations Blake had read in books were visible to the naked eye. With such a clear sky the shattered moon was even clearly visible to the teen as it seemingly shined in the night's sky.

_How did I never notice the stars?_

Blake didn't know how long she stared at the sky, lost in the myriad of lights that littered her vision. What pulled her out of her trance was a slight touch, her head jerking to the source of it, Ruby.

"Never been out of the city much, huh?"

Blake slowly shook her head, "No, not really."

Ruby stared back up to the sky, "It reminds me of home." Blake waited for Ruby to continue, "Back on Patch we don't have too many lights outside of Signal… the sky normally looks like this."

"Really?" Blake couldn't imagine living with a view of this every night. She knew that living in the city you couldn't see such a thing due to light pollution.

"Yup!" Ruby popped the p before getting up, "If you wanna visit during Winter break you could see the view- I mean if you would even wanna visit, I know Yang would be happy to have you and dad probably wouldn't mind..." Blake was taken aback by the sudden offer, "I'm sure you got stuff going o-"

"That would be nice." A small smile grace Blake's lips in the dim light of the night as she thought of the offer, "You should go to sleep Ruby, we have a long day tomorrow".

"Goodnight Blake!"

As Ruby walked off to her own sleeping bag, Blake gazed back up at the sky. It was a beautiful landscape of dots and a moon, one which she wouldn't mind seeing every night. However she was far more excited at the thought of spending more time with Ruby then getting to see the stars again. _Although both at the same time would be even better._

* * *

AU: Can I just say that stargazing is one of coolest things to do? Its one of my few hobbies outside of archery, writing and anime. That or I just walk a lot at night.


	17. Ears

Blake looked up from her book to find Ruby staring at her.

It wasn't the first time in evening that Blake had caught her staring at her bow. The reason for why was obvious; it was because of the Faunus ears that the bow hide_. Ruby thinks they are cute…_ Blake could feel a small blush forming on her face at the thought of it.

In the past week, Blake had caught Ruby staring at her bow more than a few times. _It's not that I mind particularly, I just wish she wasn't so obvious about it, oh well. _Giving a shrug of her shoulders, Blake went back to her book.

"Doesn't hurt?"

Blake looked back up from her book, Ruby's eyes were most definitely focused no longer on Blake's bow, but Blake's own amber eyes. "What?"

Ruby's eyes flickered up before coming back down, "Doesn't it hurt to hide your ears?"

Blake gave a look around their dorm room; they were indeed alone, "A little bit, I got used to it." Her head tilted, "Why do you ask?"

"Welllll…" Ruby put a hand under her chin as she thought for a few seconds, "You can feel them right? Having to put bindings over them has to hurt right?"

Blake gave a noncommittal shrug, "Not really. Like I said, I got used to it."

"Oh." Ruby seemed to be considering something, "You don't have to wear the bow when you are around me, y'know?"

_The thought actually hadn't occurred to me_. It was still an alien thought in Blake's head of Ruby knowing about her ears. Sure a few others knew, like Velvet, but she was a Faunus as well. Blake had seen her get picked on for her ears, and while she felt anger at the treatment it made her all the more resolute in her decision to keep her bow on.

Some of the staff of the school knew as well, after all Beacon Academy did look at medical records. _At the very least professor Ozpin and professor Goodwitch know._ Blake felt as if a few other professors knew, the most telling is when they'd give a brief glance at her bow.

Blake gave another glance around the dorm room, "I… suppose I could take it off." Slowly and carefully she removed her bow, letting her two fuzzy Faunus ears come out. It felt… odd to have them in the open air. Most times Blake had taken the bow off was either in shower or when she was changing in the bathroom. To not have it on in the main room was… just… different. Not a bad sort of different. _Actually its sorta nice not to have to hide them from someone on my team…_

Casting an eye over to Ruby, the girl was giving Blake a goofy smile with a fairly deep blush. Giving an amused shake of her head, Blake went back to her book, her ears unbounded, the bow laying on the bed next to her.

* * *

AU: Fairly innocent chapter. The Rubbles was quite worried about her friend's ears. I bet you all thought she was going to ask if she could touch them amiright? WELP NO! :P

But seriously fairly innocent chapter that is also quite short. I like writing shorter chapters it would seem, yup.


	18. Sleep I

Ruby was at a loss for words. She knew this day would come, but had prayed, begged the great deity for it not to come to pass.

Weiss Schnee, Ruby's partner and good friend had failed a test.

In retrospect it was merely a matter of time until it happened; Weiss could only push herself so far and trying to study for all of the upcoming exams had pushed her to her limit. Especially when final exams were a few weeks off. Worse of all, it had been Professor Port's class, literally the easiest class.

"Um… Weiss…" Weiss had yet to move as she sat at her spot in the lecture hall, numbly staring at her test grade. "A-are you oka-"

Weiss wordlessly stood up and fast walked- no, ran out of the class room.

* * *

"Weisssss?"

It was late, well past midnight, and Ruby couldn't find her partner. Normally Ruby would have been asleep long ago, but she was worried about Weiss; Weiss always went to sleep at eleven pm, she was punctual to a fault. With the concern over her missing partner in mind, Ruby had decided it was her duty as Weiss' partner and team leader, even enlisting the help of Yang and Blake from their turn to do weekly laundry to no avail.

_Uggggh where could she be? _Ruby didn't have a particularly high amount of faith in Yang, after all Yang sucked in hide and seek, but Blake seemed to be pretty good at finding things_. _

_**Beep!**_

It was a text from Blake, _She found Weiss in library, finally!_ Ruby sprinted towards the library, _has she been studying the entire time_? It would make sense, but there is such a thing as overdoing it.

Skidding around a corner, Ruby found not only the entrance to the library but Blake standing next to it. Lacking, however was Weiss. "Hey Blake! I got your text… um, where's Weiss?"

Blake merely pointed inside at a table covered in books, so much so that Ruby thought someone had made a fort of them. Squinting, Ruby could barely make out the form of Weiss. Face down, her head resting on a book. It almost looks like she is sleepi-

"I think she is asleep" Blake stated matter of factly, "I can hear her snoring."

Ruby cocked her head, "How can you tell? I can't hear anything…" Blake raised an eyebrow before her bow twitch, _right she has faunus ears. Riiiight._

Ruby walked over to Weiss, before whispering, "Weisss, you need to go back to the dorm before you can sleep." Weiss mumbled something before giving out another gentle snore. Ruby gave her a light shake, "Weiss wake up." Nothing.

"Well, we need to get her to the room somehow." Blake pointed out, "Maybe we should carry her?"

* * *

Ruby still couldn't believe the two had been able to carry Weiss back to the dorm without waking her up. _I didn't realize she was such a heavy sleeper! Now to get to sleep…_

Ruby failed to stifle a yawn as she realized she still needed to get into her pajamas. _Wow I'm tired_, a sleepy glance at the clock revealed how late into the night it was, nearly two in the morning. _Maybe if I just close my eyes for a second, I can figure out where I put my pajamas..._

As Blake came out of the bathroom she noticed that Ruby was not only not rushing into the bathroom but was snoozing on the carpet.

Kneeling next to the redhead, Blake gently shook her, "Ruby wake up, you need to get to bed still" The reaction she got was one that Blake didn't expect; instead of waking up, Ruby latched on to Blake.

"Ruby, let go." Blake was far too tired to deal with it. Yet Ruby was not letting go. Even as Blake sat there on the carpet, drowsiness started to overcome her plus the carpet was soft and the warmth from Ruby was nice, Blake drifted off to sleep as well.

* * *

AU: Huh. Well that had a sorta fluffy end I suppose? I don't have much to say today to be perfectly honest with you guys and gals. OH! Two parter chapter, there is that too.


	19. Sleep II

Ruby was currently in an odd place; she was both uncomfortable and very VERY comfortable. Uncomfortable, because most her body was not lying on something soft, like a bed, yet oddly comfortable because the rest of her was lying on something both soft and warm. _Heated blankets are awesome._ It was the natural conclusion Ruby came up with, not even caring about the fact her heated blanket was still at Patch. _So warm and soft~_ Ruby knew she could move to remove the uncomfortable aspect, but that required effort and Ruby was very tired.

In her half-conscious state, Ruby lethargically pulled herself closer into the warm soft thing, intent on falling back asleep and figuring it out after she woke up. _I can figure it out in the morning, sleep now, think later._ Just as she started to drift off, the warm soft thing moved.

_Wait what? Blankets don't move…_

Pulling herself out of her sleepy state was a heroic battle, as Ruby finally forced her heavy eyelids open, she was not greeted with the monotone wall or ceiling of the dorm, but rather a black fabric of some kind. A fabric that was most definitely not Ruby's bed sheets or heated blanket, confusing her further.

Blinking the sand out of her eyes, Ruby slowly pushed herself up, the black fabric moving away from her face. Not only that, but a weirdly warm thing fell off her back, limply hitting the carpet with a muffled thud. Lazily looking at the source, Ruby saw an arm. Turning back towards the fabric, Ruby realized It was not the blanket she thought it was; rather it was a robe of some kind. A robe attached to a content looking, sleeping person named Blake.

_W-w-why am I cuddling with Blake on the floor?! Why am I sleeping with Blake!? _What sleepiness was in Ruby had left, as her mind started to rewind, _I was waiting for Blake to get out of the bathroom and then I woke up on her… what time is it even? _Ruby squinted at the alarm clock, _Yup half past need to go to bed. _

Slowly extracting herself from Blake, Ruby's thoughts continued to run wild, I don't hear any snoring, so Yang probably isn't back yet. Panic started to set in, Oh dust, if Yang saw us here. Ruby attempted to study Yang's top bunk, but couldn't make heads or tails if it was just one of the rare nights where the blonde didn't snore.

_I need to get to bed!_

Ever so gently, trying to emulate every ninja movie Ruby had ever seen ever, she pulled herself up and off Blake without waking her up. _Now for pajamas and back to sleep!_

A quick trip to the bathroom later, Ruby was prepared for sleep, the sound of loud snoring making Ruby feel even sleepier. _Snoring_? Yang was most definitely in her bunk now_. I suppose she just got back while I was in the bathroom? _Ruby shrugged, the logic seemed sound. _Time for sleep…_

…Except Blake was still sleeping on the floor._ I… I should probably wake her up_. Looking at the sleeping girl, Ruby debated the pros and cons of shaking the faunus awak- _wait is she shivering?_ Blake no longer looked content, but quite cold now. _Was I that warm?_ Ruby thought with a blush. Shaking the thought out of her head, Ruby gently shook Blake, "wake up Blake!"

Blake slowly started to rouse, sitting up without opening her eyes, "Ruby…?"

"Um, you need to get to bed Blake…"

"…but I _was_ sleeping…" Blake's eyes still hadn't opened as she swayed dangerously back and forth, ready to fall back onto the carpet for more sleep.

Ruby shook her head, "Not in your bed, silly!" Pulling Blake up, she led the half-conscious girl over to her bunk. _Which was devoid of blankets?_ The younger girl cocked her head at the bed. "I'll get you some blankets." _I can just get some from my bed, I guess. _

Blake mumbled out a thanks, as Ruby made a quick ascent to her own bunk. Ruby was greeted with a very familiar sight, a bed lacking blankets. A quick glance at the other two beds in the dorm came with the same result. _Right, its laundry day_. Ruby face-palmed, _since I got Blake and Yang to help me they never finished the laundry._

Blake was lying in her bed, curled up on, shivering, again. Ruby herself was feeling cold. _I think I have an idea… An idea that could end… poorly…. _

Bending over to Blake, so she could whisper, "Um… Blake… um… there are no blankets… like… anywhere." The Faunus merely groaned as she tried to settle into her pillow, her teeth chattering. "But um, we could…um… share the bed for warmth…" Ruby felt herself blush as she realized what she was actually asking, "Uh-uh-uh, I mean if you want to of course, it's not like you have to or anything, I mean if you don't want to its fine."

Blake didn't respond immediately, before scooting back towards the wall. Ruby slowly and more than a awkwardly climbed onto the bed, trying to maintain a distance between her and the black haired girl.

Now that Ruby wasn't moving, she was definitely feeling cold. The feeling of cold started to disappear as a very warm and particularly soft texture pushed against Ruby's back, an arm snaking around Ruby's stomach, encircling her with warmth.

The reverse was now happening, as Ruby felt warm. Not as in uncomfortably hot, but just a pleasant feeling of warmth, as the even breathing of Blake slowly lulled Ruby asleep.

* * *

Yang thought of herself as a good big sister.

She loved Ruby to death, and could even admit she was a tad over protective of times of her younger sister. Perhaps even a bit too heavy on the teasing even. But when she had walked into the dorm room, exhausted from searching for Weiss and found her partner and little sister curled up on the floor, Yang felt a number of things, however, one thing was for sure.

_I should probably talk to Ruby about Blake sometime…_

* * *

AU: Channeling the crap out of Booksandweapon's latest lazy doodle of sleepy Blake. Somehow it just worked perfectly. Speaking of booksandweapons, aka Dani, HI DANI! Dani-senpai noticed me! XD It also fits well, because from limited amount of tumblr viewing I do, Dani-senpai is like stupidly sleep deprived and needs some sleep.

My career as a ladybug shipper has hit it big when the person who draws literally the cutest ladybug art has read the my ladybug story and given praise. Totally not fangasming. Wow that sounded dirty.

As to the actual chapter, wow, much words, many fluff. Yes I do intend to have Blake and Ruby actually get together and not just in the land of eternal "better-then-friends-but-not-dating". I just like having drabbles in between here and there.

Okay, so, for you Acceptance fans, editing should be done tonight of chapter ten, posting tomorrow around two or so. That is the plan at least.


	20. Brooding

_What happens if they don't accept me?_

Blake was lost in thought. As much as she should be focusing on studying for her first semester's final, she was not. In fact, she had been incredibly unproductive today. Or for the past week.

One of the nice things about being an admittedly studious person, perhaps not to the level of Weiss, was the fact that Blake could afford to slack off for a few days. The problem was that she couldn't slack off for studying for the final exams. Yet no matter how much she tried to focus on the book in front of her, the words barely seemed to enter her head. Instead her mind was stuck on a replay, stuck on a single thought;

_What happens if they don't accept me?_

Blake knew she needed to tell the rest of her team that she was a Faunus. While she had gotten lucky that Ruby had accepted her so… easily, it didn't change the fact that Blake was worried about her other two teammates. _Sure, Ruby was likely to be the least angry about it; it's why I worried the least. But Yang and Weiss…_

Yang had a temper, a temper that Blake knew to never willingly to provoke. But on that same note Yang was particularly forgiving if it was Blake who messed up on something. After all, we are partners. However, Blake didn't know if Yang would be so forgiving if the blond realized that Blake had been lying to her since they met.

_Okay, maybe it isn't EXACTLY a lie, more like a white lie_, Blake's mind scrambled to come up with an excuse_, I never said I WASN'T a Faunus. I… just stayed tactfully silent on the matter._ As much as Blake worried about how Yang might react, she knew her partner would be fine with it in the end. _After all, we're partners and Yang is Ruby's sister right? She is probably as forgiving as Ruby is. Probably. _

No, the real concern for Blake was Weiss.

Weiss Schnee, whose family used Faunus as glorified slaves, whose family's company Blake had actually attacked when she had been part of the White Fang. When Blake had found out she'd be on the same team as the heiress she'd panicked more than a little. Blake had thought the heiress was going to be, well, acting like an heiress. That might have been the case in the beginning, but that had changed as Weiss seemingly became one of them. Moreover, out of all of team RWBY and team JNPR, Weiss had it seemed gone out of her way, if only slightly, to try and befriend Blake, more so then Weiss' own partner, Ruby.

As fragile of a friendship it might have been, Blake would be lying if she said she wasn't a little scared of losing that dynamic with her teammate. _It's not as if I spent the last five years attacking Schnee Dust Company property. Or stealing from their trains. Nope. No reason to be nervous._

That was another thing Blake worried about, the fact she was sort of a former terrorist_. Okay not sort of one… I was one. _While Ruby knew she was a Faunus, she didn't know that Blake was also a member of the White Fang. A former member._ She'll be understanding right? Right? _The image of a very betrayed looking Ruby flitted through Blake's head. The thought of it caused her ears to flatten under her bow. _Standing up for your rights shouldn't be terrorism!_

Blake gave a quick glance to the girl in question, who was munching on cookies next to her.

_Maybe I should just be… tactfully quiet about it?_ Blake rolled the thought around her head, _it's not like she needs to know right? But on the other hand should I tell her a- ack!_

Blake was pulled out of her thoughts from two hands tugging on her cheeks, her eyes focusing on owner of said hands, Ruby. "What the-"

The hands left go as Ruby, with a guilty tone spoke, "I..uh… you look like you were lost in thoughts. Like sad thoughts. Whenever I do that Yang does that to cheer get me thinking happy thoughts…"

Blake rolled her eyes, "I was just thinking about something that's all." With that said, Blake's mind went back to thoughts, Ruby's response of what she was thinking of not even registering in her head.

_Would Ruby be understandin- ack!_

The faunus was pulled once more as two hands tugged on her cheeks.

"Ruby! I'm trying to brood!"

Ruby let go of her face before responding, "Nope!~"

Blake quirked an eyebrow, "Nope…?"

"You were brooding on something sad weren't you?" Ruby's curious eyes stared into Blake's. "Do…do you need someone to talk to?"

The black-haired girl couldn't help but sigh_. Maybe it'd be better if I told Ruby a little bit… after all she did say she'd help. _Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, she whispered back, "When… when do you think I should tell them?"

Ruby cocked her head, "Tell who what?"

Blake continued unfazed, "Tell Weiss and Yang about… me." The lack of expression changing on Ruby's part prompted to Blake to twitch her bow causing understanding to dawn on Ruby's face.

The team leader rubbed her chin before shrugging, "After exams?" Ruby nodded her head, "Yup, after exams."

Blake sighed, "Do…. Do you think they'll be accepting? They won't reject me?"

Ruby vehemently shook her head, "No of course not silly!" Yet Blake couldn't help but worry, her posture showing it. The girl felt a warmth warp around her as Ruby gave her a hug, "Blake, seriously, stop worrying. It'll be fine."

"It'll be fine."

* * *

AU: Not the chapter you were expecting was it? There is a reason for that; As I've said before I tend to space out story chapters, i.e. the ones that people are waiting for. In this case the sisterly discussion chapter. There is also another reason for this... Dani (of booksandweapons tumblr... hi Dani!)'s image of Ruby stopping Blake from brooding was the primary inspiration of the chapter. (Oh and the fact that I maybe should actually plan a bit for that chapter instead of winging it completely. I literally have no idea what I was going to do for it so there is that too.)

Yup.

Next chapter will probably be discussion time. Probably. In the meantime have Rubbles cheering up the kitty kat. Have a great day and thank you for reading!


	21. Crush I

Ruby was having a good day.

Professor Port's class had only been a movie about how to safely trap a beowolf; something Ruby had actually found interesting. Sparring class had her fight Ren, which had been quite fun. Best of all, the super special cookies that Ruby really REALLY liked with strawberries in them were being served at lunch.

_This is a good day _Ruby thought as she munched on cookies, _although I wonder why Yang keeps staring me. _It was weird; Weiss and Blake had gone to the library to get an early start on studying leaving Yang and Ruby alone. Yang had been mostly silent as Ruby CONSUMED the cookies. Just as Ruby started to guzzle some milk, Yang spoke up.

"Soooo are you dating Blake?"

Ruby gagged for a moment before spewing milk out at the question and at Yang. Yang lifted her lunch tray up, blocking the spray of milk.

"Whaaaa?!"

As Ruby tried to process, Yang started to fiddle with her as she spoke, "Well… you have been spending a lot of time with her alone…" Yang looked directly into Ruby's shocked eyes, "…and as your big sister I just wanted to know if you happened to be interested in her…" Yang trailed off waiting for Ruby to say something.

Ruby could only blink. "I…I… what?" She shook her head rapidly. "I'm not dating Blake…" Ruby muttered, a growing blush visible.

Yang cocked an eyebrow, "Really? How come you two were all snuggled up on the floor a few nights back? Or locked in a broom closet?"

"B-b-but there were no blankets and we were cold!" Ruby was no longer having a good day. "P-plus you were all angry because of your hair!"

"Ruby…" Yang put a hand on her arm. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Ruby slowly nodded after a handful of seconds. "I mean, Blake's pretty cute and smart and awesome n'stuff…" The blush was growing brighter and brighter as Ruby's voice became faster and faster, "But, like, Blake's really cool and I'm not and maybeee I think she is really pretty, but it's not like we are dating, nope nope nope."

_Oh dust; did I just say all of that?!_ I did. Ruby just wanted to melt away into her bed where she could hide here embarrassment.

_It would be pretty nice though? _

The thought popped into her head, only causing her to blush more, pulling her cape's hood over her head.

"It sounds like you have a crush." Ruby peered through the hood at Yang, the blonde girl was now grinning wildly, "It sounds like you could use some help sis." Ruby knew what that grin was, it was a very mischievous grin.

_Oh no._

"Yang!" Ruby pulled off her hood as her voice started to gain a certain aspect of sternness to it, "please please please don't do anything like... like..." Ruby blushed as she stopped before starting again, "I can figure it out on my own…please?" Big silver eyes stared at lilac ones.

Yang's shoulders slumped. "Fineeeeee. But if you ever need help sis, y'know where to find me~" With that, Yang got up and walked out of the cafeteria, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts.

_…does this mean I have a crush on Blake?_

* * *

AU: Well isn't that a good question to leave off with? Guess Ruby is going to have to spend some time thinking on that. Please note the chapter title, specifically that number right there. I'll be getting out chapters faster then a week, I imagine.


	22. Crush II

It felt like Blake had hardly spent any time alone with her partner recently.

Maybe it was just the studying for semester exams or the plain fact that Blake had been hanging out a lot with Ruby, the point still stood. Blake hadn't hung out with Yang in a while. Deciding to rectify that lack of social interaction, Blake had sought out Yang. Or rather, would have, had the blonde not found her first.

It was with those intentions that Blake had found herself dragged to small juice bar, quietly sipping on some as Yang talked. Even though they had been partnered for close to a semester now, it was hard sometimes for Blake to get a word in edgewise with the blonde. _She seems to just go at her own pace m-_

"Blake~" Yang drawled.

"Yes?"

"Whatca ya been up to?" Blake quirked an eyebrow. "I haven't seen you around much…" Yang pouted.

"Studying, reading… you see me every day Yang."

"True, true," Yang nodded enthusiastically, "but mostly I've been seeing you with Ruby."

Blake gave a very slight shrug before sipping her juice. "I have been hanging out with her a lot, yes."

"Leaving me with the ice queen." Yang sadly shook her head. "She is so _weiss_ cold to me too…" Blake stifled a groan at the pun. "So what have you and Rubes been up to?" A mischievous glint entered Yang's eyes as her tone took on a teasing quality, "I mean other than sleeping together?"

To Blake's credit, the juice she was drinking didn't go everywhere through a near herculean effort, the Faunus choking down a gag before responding, "Helping her study for the exams mostly."

"Uh-huh" Yang slowly nodded her head. "Suuuuuure it's just you two studying… buuuut what about when you aren't studying, eh?" Yang gave a knowing look at Blake and a small elbow to the side.

_Does…does she know?_ It would be like Yang to start teasing Blake about the two spending time together. A fair bit of it recently concerned Blake's heritage. More than a little anxiety started to fill Blake's mind as she tried to guess what this was about. _Is she going to ask why I haven't told her that I'm a Faunus? But how did she find ou-_ Yang, taking Blake's silence as an okay to go on, continued, "You two have been spending a _lot_ of time _together_. Alone."

Blake blinked in surprise as she realized what Yang was actually angling at. _Does she think we're dating or something?_ "We were huddled up together because unlike some, we aren't a walking heat generator."

"Sure, sure and those times when it's just you and Ruby in the room, it's just a bit cold?"

Blake looked Yang in the eye, "Yes" That's a lie. Ruby is just comfortable to lean on, nice and soft.

Yang nodded, getting the message clearly, before continuing onto something else. Blake's focused stay on Ruby however; _she really is nice to cuddle with._

* * *

AU_:  
_Yeah, okay short as crap chapter. I couldn't figure any other way to really make it meatier without Yang breaking too much of what she said to Ruby. Yang is just being a bit teasey is all.


	23. Crush III

The thought had stuck in Ruby's head even as she lay in her bed, trying to sleep.

_Do I have a crush on Blake? _

To Ruby a crush meant that you wanted to date someone, that you liked them romantically. _You liked liked them, or as Nora put it together-together_. True, Ruby had been spending a lot of time with Blake, and it was true that she enjoyed it quite a bit_… but it was a jump to go from a friend to a crush… isn't it?_

_Maybe it wasn't_, maybe she did have a crush on the older girl. _I mean, it's nice to cuddle with her…_ a blush worthy of her name started to form on her face, _and she is pretty awesome._

Still, it was a jump to go from a really cool friend who occasional cuddling happened with to a _crush_.

Ruby had a one or two crushes back at Signal Academy, a couple of brief infatuations that ultimately came out to nothing. There'd been the time she had tried to confess to the boy only to get too nervous about it and chicken out.

_Maybe I should ask Yang for advice? _

_Yang would be able to give good ad-_ Ruby's eyes widened in horror. _Nope nope nope, the teasing would be endless! _

Ruby rolled onto her stomach as she thought, her blanket falling off her frame. _Well, if I have a crush on her so what? It doesn't change anything… we're still friends_. Yup. Still friends. Ruby shivered slightly as she pulled the blanket over her. _I do like cuddling with her…_

_But does that mean I want to BE with her, just because I like cuddling with her?_ Ruby rolled onto her side to look at the bunk containing the girl in question. _Not necessarily? I mean, I do like getting hugs from Yang, when they aren't bone breaking, but it's… just different_. Ruby signed.

_What if I just really like cuddles?_ That could be it! Ruby snapped her fingers, eliciting a groan from below her.

"Oops, sorry Weiss!"

"Go to sleep Ruby, it's too early in the morning." Weiss grumbled.

Ruby, taking the advice to heart, tried to fall asleep. She really did try her best.

…_I just like cuddles from really cute and awesome girls. Yup. Problem solved. I don't have a crush, just a friend I like to cuddle with. _Ruby closed her eyes as she waited for sleep to finally come.

_Although, Blake is really the only cute and awesome girl I would wanna cuddle with…. So wouldn't that make her the only one I want to cuddle_? Ruby rolled back over to look at Blake's bunk.

_I kinda want to cuddle right now…. If we were dating I could cuddle her whenever I wa-. Wait where did that come from?!_

Ruby pondered it for a few minutes, I really do like her_ …so maybe it's more than just wanting to cuddle with someone?_ Ruby's thought process jumped to a new avenue of thought. _Maybe I DO have a crush on her? What's not to like, she is smart and mysterious and really cool! _Ruby smiled at the thought._  
_

_What's so bad about having a crush on Blake anyways?_

* * *

AU: Well that was interesting... looks like a certain Rose is starting to realize she maaayyyyy have a crush on her only teammate she isn't partnered to or related to. Yup. I really like to draw this out, don't I? _  
_

Oddly enough I think the grammar was less terrible today.


	24. Crush IV

Blake could easily admit to herself that she had a crush on Ruby.

Even as she peered over the top of her book at Ruby's attempt to build a tower of cards, the slight flutter in her stomach made it clear that she was indeed having… feelings towards the girl.

It was hard for Blake to pinpoint when exactly she started to form romantic feelings towards Ruby. When Blake had first met her, all Blake could think of was that the younger teen was incredibly clumsy – having caused a dust explosion via Schneeze – _darn it Yang_. Blake shook her head in a vain hope to get the Yang-like puns out of it. The next day was initiation and the fight in the forest during initiation had certainly showed that Ruby had skill, that Ruby wasn't all what she had seemed when Blake first met her.

_Heck, the fact she had an interest in what I was reading the night before is unusual_. Most people the night before Initiation had kept to themselves, nervous over the upcoming day.

Ever since Ruby had been made leader of team RWBY, Blake had been on the receiving end of the young girl's kindness – ranging from the time when Ruby had read a book to her to when Ruby had tried to hide her from the fury of Yang.

If Blake was being honest, Ruby was the kind of person that Blake had hoped to stay, an optimist. It was the type of person that Blake had been once but was no longer, her years in the White Fang having eradicated her hopeful optimism.

_I still don't know how Ruby is an optimist with the world we live in. _

It didn't matter to Blake how Ruby was what she is, outside of idle curiosity. Instead it fostered a sense of wanting to protect the girl and her ideals. _Almost like a sense of possessiveness.  
_

Blake sighed softly; _she is also just plain fun to be around. _Ruby had dragged Blake to more than a few fun filled times – the Vale WeaponCon to name just one. Instead of sitting by herself, reading her Saturday away, Ruby had taken Blake to new experience - a convention.

In short it was pretty easy for Blake to realize that she may like Ruby as more than a friend, Yang's comment had just brought the dynamic that she shared with Ruby into Blake's focus. What was not so easy was how to proceed next.

On the one hand Blake wouldn't mind seeing where a possible romantic pursuit of Ruby would take the two…

On the other hand Blake didn't want to mess up her friendship with Ruby. _Ruby might not even see me more than a friend. _Blake most assuredly did not want to mess with one of her treasured friends, or even worse, alienate Ruby.

There was also the fact that if Blake wanted to protect the optimist in Ruby, she could never share about her time in the White Fang. _It would destroy what she thinks of me_. Blake could feel her ears flatten at the thought. _No, perhaps it would be best to just stay silent on it._

Ruby knew about Blake's status as a Faunus, something that no one else in the team did, but not even Ruby had knowledge of Blake's former… occupation.

_Although, maybe I should start being a bit more open?_ Blake sighed again. _Then what happens if I alienate them? Ruby took it well enough b-_

"Uhh… Blake?"

Blake looked up from her book to find Ruby a few feet away. "Hm..?"

"You keeping sighing and… I think your book is upside down…." Ruby was nervously fidgeting. "Um…"

"Just a lot on my mind" _including you_. "That's all."

Ruby perked up. "Anything I can help with?"

Blake tapped her chin with more then a little uncertainty entering her voice. "A-actually…"

* * *

AU: Huh, well I do wonder what Blake is going to say. I GUESS WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL THE NEXT CHAPTER... Its going to be a fun chapter next time.

This is actually a big moment for the two... we've finally hit the point where they both sort of have crushes on each other. It's only taken me something like twenty thousand words to get to this point. Maybe by thirty or forty thousand word count they'll be on the first date, who knows?

...I know that's who :P Have a great day! New chapter soon (probably friday or saturday)!

**P.S.** Thank you for reading this story, I'd like to point out that I have over 300 followers, something I never thought this little project would garner. So thank, seriously, thank you!

**P.S.S. **For all those who are curious I do have the next chapter of Acceptance done, it is currently in the process of editing so expect it's release within a week or so.


	25. Thirty Lien Bet I

Weiss sighed as she and Yang waited in their dorm.

Blake had said she and Ruby had something to tell them and Weiss could only guess at what it'd be. I'd be surprised if it was anything other than them going out. _The two of them have been getting rather close as of late. _

Weiss glanced at the clock. _Couldn't they of picked a better time to figure out their feelings?_ She tapped her foot impatiently, _we have exams next week and I should be studying._

"Sooooo" Yang drawled. "Thirty lien that Blakey and Rubes are dating now."

Weiss hmph'd. "No deal."

Focusing her attention on the door, Weiss continued to wait. _I did promise I'd be the best teammate… I suppose studying can wait for a little bit. _

* * *

Blake knew it had only been a matter of time.

Scenarios of it had played through head for months now; if she got injured in a mission and her teammates found out when they were treating her for some injury. Or someone would see her when she was in the shower. Any number of the seemingly hundred scenarios in her head could cause her teammates to find out.

As much as Blake kept secrets it wasn't because she liked to keep them. _They were just necessary that's all_. She hadn't even planned on keeping it a secret until she got teamed up with a certain heiress.

There had been one person that Blake wanted to tell from the onset; her own partner Yang. The fact that Yang still didn't know after a whole semester was… well… Blake was ashamed of herself for that. Over that semester the number of people grew from one to two as Blake had bonded with Ruby.

Through a series of less than… voluntary events led to Ruby finding out that Blake was a Faunus. Instead of the possible scorn or losing her friend or having Ruby's trust in Blake being dashed… it strengthened their fledging friendship.

_Ruby called them cute too_. The memory made Blake blush still at the small compliment Ruby had given her. Those handful of words meant a lot to Blake. The words that Ruby had spoken after that about not losing her trust were even more meaningful to Blake.

It wasn't only that, Ruby had promised to help Blake when the moment came. With it set that Blake was going to finally stop hiding her ears and Ruby was going to help her, Blake couldn't help but agonize over it a little bit –_ it was a big deal after all!_

The original plan was for it to occur after the exams when everyone was done stressing for semester finals. That plan did not survive contact – Blake's mind kept returning to the when it would happen.

_So why not do it sooner?_

Which led Blake to where she was right now – standing outside of her team's dorm, Ruby next to her, giving the Faunus silent but visible support.

_Might as well get this over with. _

Blake opened the door; Weiss and Yang's attention was instantly on her as she slowly shuffled in followed closely by Ruby. A silence followed as Blake's preplanned speech started to blank on her. In the face of actually doing it all the preparation felt inadequate.

"Well?" Weiss' impatient voice cut through the silence.

"Give her a moment!" Ruby jumped in.

"Are you two dating yet?" the teasing tone of Yang entered the mix. Blake could feel Ruby sputtering for a response, so Blake responded; the black hair teen shook her head slowly.

"Okay, what's up Blakey?" The teasing tone was gone, concern replacing the usual light tone Yang spoke with. "Why are you so serious? You can tell us..."

Blake tried to open her mouth to speak but the words died in her throat. I just need to get this over with. Her hands' shakily rose to the top of her head before tugging on her bow.

Giving Weiss and Yang one last look, Blake closed her eyes as she willed herself to follow through. Slowly her hands pulled off the strip of fabric until her ears could feel the breezy and slightly chilled air of the room.

* * *

AU: WELL I WONDER WHAT NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE ABOUT? I have to say my thought was this was going to happen about ten chapters after the Hunted Arc... the assessment seems to be correct.

The moment you guys have all been waiting for, Yang and Weiss finally get to see that Blake does like tuna a lot for actual reasons.

I did actually deliver seeing as it is indeed Friday and I'm posting this right now. Next chapter, seeing as I leave you guys and girls on a cliffhanger, will be out sometime either Sunday or Monday? I'd like to get Acceptance out tomorrow, which leaves Sunday or Monday or possibly late as Tuesday as the final time slot for when I'd push out chapter 26.

Have a great Friday everyone! I'd say weekend but I may be posting a new chapter before the weekend is out!

**IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE:** RTX is August 7th, 8th and 9th. In honour of RTX I may release a chapter of Dilation each day of that in it's own special little arc. In fact I may break my rule and take longer then a hour to write each of those chapters because RTX. Would you, the readers/viewers, be interested in that?

**TL;DR: Want me to post a chapter every day of RTX?**


	26. Thirty Lien Bet II

Blake had to steady her breath as she opened her eyes, uncertain as to how Weiss and Yang would react..

Weiss was staring uncertainly at Blake's ears, as if unsure if it was real or not. Blake couldn't fault her; it wasn't every day you find out your teammate is actually a Faunus with cat ears hidden under a bow for nearly a whole semester. Yang on the other hand was… _grinning? Wait what? _That wasn't something Blake had expected at all. No, Blake had expected shock or even a look of betrayal... the grinning was not that.

"You have _cat_ to be _kittening_ me right now."

Blake blinked as her mouth opened and closed at the awful puns, unable to form words at the light hearted words. Ruby groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. Weiss was still focused on Blake's Faunus ears.

Yang shrugged her hands palm up in gesture of ambivalence. "What?" The largest smirk Blake had ever seen was being exhibited by Yang. "Did I ruin the mewment?"

"You're taking this… surprisingly well." Blake's voice decided to finally function.

"I kinda knew already heh heh." Yang replied, guiltily.

"What."

"Welp." The light teasing tone started to fade as Yang shifted nervously on her feet, her smirk fading as she became more serious. "I figured you had a reason for not telling us." Blake could only stare at her partner. _Yang had known the entire time?!_

"How… how did you know?"

Yang continued to shift awkwardly on her feet as she started to tick off her fingers. "You really don't like dogs, thought tuna was better than chocolate, your bow twitches sometimes aaaaand there was that one time when you came out of the bathroom without your bow on for a few seconds."

_I thought no one saw me that time too._ "Oh." Blake was at a loss of words again, a reoccurring theme as of late. _So Yang knew the whole time. _That was a bombshell that Blake had never considered._ Surely Yang would have acted different or at least… something. Yet she never acted any differently… and she is still treating me the same. Except worse puns._

Yang mischievous smirk returned. "Aww, cat got your tongue?" Blake shuddered at it, too many puns. Yang noticed, her smirk faltering. "Should I stop? I had a loooong time to think of some…"

Blake shook her head. "No just toned it down a little?" A smile of her own broke through. "Paw-lease?"

"Oh no, now Blake's doing it too…" Ruby lamented as Yang gave a goofy smile and thumbs up to Blake. _That went well._

"Why didn't you tell us?"

Weiss' voice cut in, speaking up for the first time since Blake's bow had come off.

"I… I wanted to fit in." Blake had come to that realization a long time ago, yet it still felt awkward to say out loud. "I wanted to have a chance at normalcy. I didn't want to get picked on, or judged because I have these." Blake twitched her ears.

Blake looks around the room at all her teammates. "I just wanted to have friends, to have teammates who cared for me." Her eyes focused on her feet. Despite the fact she had planned this - that Blake had prepared for this - she couldn't help but feel her eyes start to get watery. "That's all."

"Ehm." Weiss cleared her throat. "Well I for one do not see an issue."

"Really?" Blake couldn't believe it. All this time she had thought Weiss would act shocked, or at least be different. Yet it turned out she didn't mind.

"Yes really." Weiss' tone became gentler, something that Blake had never heard before. "I still consider you my friend."

The small warmth that had grown increasingly familiar to Blake occurred as Ruby hugged her. "You have me too!"

A heated inferno of bone crushing joined Ruby, as Blake's partnered bear-hugged the two. "We're still partners Blakey." Yang pulled back from the hug.

"Hey! Watch wher- oof!"

Weiss joined the group hug as Yang dragged her into it – not that Weiss was unwilling – turning it into a team hug. For the first time in a long, long while, Blake felt relieved. Her teammates finally knew at least some of her secrets; they knew she was a Faunus. It was like the bubble bursting, all the fear of rejections had been for naught, all the worrying and sleepiness nights had been for nothing. Who knows how long she would of suffered worrying about what her teammates would think if she hadn't revealed her ears? They might not know about her time in the White Fang, but small steps at a time.

It was all thanks to a little Rose that Blake had actually confessed up to the rest of her team… who knows how much longer she would have kept her ears hidden? _Sometime I really need to show some gratitude to Ruby._

* * *

AU: Wait…. No cliffhanger today? In the famous words of Admiral Ackbar, "IT'S A TRA- chapter that has no cliffhanger. How quaint." (No not really. Half of his quotes are about traps or retiring early from the military, nothing about chapters).

Now then, I actually did have resolution pretty quickly... its not like Weiss is gonna be a idiot and go "YOU LIED NO MORE FRIENDS"... no, Blake had a understandable reason for hiding her ears and her teammates get that. When they find out about the White Fang however... that will be messier I suppose!

I did actually hint at a close calls way back when at chapter 14. The thing with Yang didn't come out of left field, I swear.

Chapter 24 had references to several BooksandWeapons images/posts; there is the optimist image Dani drew a few weeks ago, the fact that Blake has the same worries as how Dani outlined a early Ladybug relationship would have.

**Sidenote**: Thanks Dani! You're the best! (and the Queen of Ladybug, for I am but a mere pretender to the throne of the lady bugs.)

**Important note**: I have a three or five chapter arc planned for RTX. There will most likely be a prelude and a finale posted, with a chapter each day from Thursday August 6th to Monday August 10th. Or I will be super lazy and post the finale and prelude a day before and after the Friday through Sunday chapters. I DO SOME PLANNING ON SOME DAYS I SWEAR. I actually planned the next 22 chapters while working last night. It was fun.

Thank you for the reviews guys and girls! Its what drives me to keep releasing chapters so quickly! Have a great day!


	27. Thirty Lien Bet III

Ruby was feeling a distinct sense of deva ju. Something was amiss, and that something was Blake; more specifically the fact that Blake had disappeared for the past few hours. Normally Ruby wouldn't be concerned too much, but given the semester finals that were just days away and all the drama that the Faunus had just endured, Ruby was worried.

What exactly Ruby was worried about, she couldn't place her finger on it. _She isn't in the dorms; Weiss and Yang don't know where she is either._ Ruby figured she could probably ask for help from the two but Weiss was just a finger's width away from stress induced Weissplosion while Yang probably needed every bit of last minute studying. _Maybe she is just studying?_ No, then I would have found her in the library.

Ruby's searching finally led her to the one place she had yet to look for the errant Faunus; the common room's kitchen. _Maybe she went there because it's quiet?_ It was true that the library was definitely more than a little… noisy given the imminent collision that was finals.

The first thing Ruby noticed upon opening the door was the smell of baked goods assaulting her nose. It was a smell that was well known to Ruby; mouth wateringly good_… cookies?_

Automatically her head swiveled to the source of the smell, the kitchen's oven. So intent on the smell that Ruby nearly missed the person standing next to it, giving her a quizzical look.

"Are you drooling?" Blake inquired, eyebrow raised at Ruby.

"Um no!" Ruby said defensively, before doing a double take. "Wait, this is where you've been?!"

"Where else would I be?" The eyebrow stayed quirked.

"Studying?" Ruby wasn't the most studious person herself but even she had found it weird that Blake wasn't studying. "We have the upcoming finals n'stuff… and as the leader of team RWBY I was worried about your grades!" _Weiss would be proud of how serious I am taking being a team leader right now!_ "As your team leader, I-"

**Ding**

The oven's timer went off as Blake opened the oven up. If the smell of cookies had been strong before now they were over powering to Ruby. Blake donned oven mittens before taking the tray out and setting it on the counter top.

"These are for you." Blake said quietly before backing away from the countertop.

"What." Ruby wasn't going to turn down Blake's most generous gift, but at the same time she hadn't exactly imagined that searching for Blake would result in warm gooey freshly baked cookies. "W-why?"

"As thanks." Blake shifted on her feet nervously. "If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have told people about… these." The Faunus' bow twitched. "I don't know how long I wouldn't have said anything and… it was nice having you there." The older girl had a small smile on her face as she looked at Ruby. "It meant a lot to have you there." Gesturing to the cookies, Blake continued. "So I made you cooki- eep!"

Blake was cut off as Ruby disappeared in a flash of rose petals before hugging the taller girl. "You didn't need to thank me silly!" Looking up at Blake's amber eyes, only a few scant inches away from Ruby's silver ones, the younger girl continued. "I would help you anyway I can!"

"Thanks Ruby." Blake's smile grew as she hugged back, squeezing the red head into a tight hug.

A thought flickered into Ruby's head as the two hugged, a very important detail, one to which she had to ask Blake immediately. "…so these aren't made out of tuna, right?"

* * *

AU: And that is the end of this little arc. A little bit of cute fluff to finish up a surprisingly short arc considering what happened. Next chapter will either be a prelude to the arc I plan to release over RTX or it will be on the Friday of RTX. Usually I'd post a chapter between now and RTX but I'm currently neck deep in _Acceptance_ AND JUST GOT A BRAND NEW COMPUTER THAT REQUIRES GAMING!

Side note: No longer will I have to write chapters on a tablet when the laptop freezes and crashes, huzzah!

I'd also like to say today is the six months since Monty's passing. I have a bit I'd like to say but honestly I think I'll save it for _Acceptance_'s author's note.

Have a great day!


	28. Flashcards

Blake could admit that she had not made the wisest of choices; it probably had not been the best idea to make those cookies for Ruby immediately or… to of spent several days freaking out about revealing her ears to her teammates. Perhaps, just perhaps, it would have been better to of done it after she had studied. Or even after the semester's finals.

So here she was, a day before the exam week started, trying to cram everything in one go. It goes without saying that sleep was something Blake was lacking for a few days now. _I must look like crap._ Yet she pressed on, going over months of notes, the notebooks spread out across the library's table.

The rest of her team had already studied, Weiss had even gotten Yang to get studying done in advance. In fact, Blake's team was trying to go over their last minute preparations before the tomorrow, holding a team study session in the dorms. It wasn't like they _didn't_ welcome Blake, so much as she thought she could cover more ground by studying without distractions.

_I really shouldn't need to study that much, but there is still so much to review!_ Groaning in despair at the remaining stack of notebooks, Blake's head fell limply onto the notebook in front of her. _This is going to take forever!_

**SLAM!**

A massive binder landed on the table, the sound causing Blake to spring backwards out of her chair and away from the table, sleepiness forcefully being pushed out of her head as adrenal coursed throughout her. Her hand went to grab Gambol Shroud as she focused on the assailant-

"Hiya Blake!" Only to be greeted by a cheerful, and oddly determined Ruby, her hands behind her back.

"Wha-huh. Hello Ruby." Blake's mind was racing as she fought her fight or flight instinct_. It's just Ruby. No need to fight. _Taking a deep breath and letting it out, the adrenaline started to simmer down. Finally feeling more in control, Blake looked at the source of the racket that had startled her.

It was a heavily used binder, one of the biggest ones that Blake had scene. Pages of numerous colours stuck out of it at odd angles, with a few post-it notes as well. Not only that, but Blake's slept addled mind felt like she had seen this particular binder before. Isn't that Ruby's notes binder? Looking back up at Ruby, Blake felt confused. "Why… why do you have your notes here? I thought you had already studied…"

"Yup!" Ruby answered cheerfully, a smile that could only remind Blake of her own partner graced the younger girl's face.

"So why are you here?" Blake knew she was being overly blunt, but there was still so much to review and it wasn't like she had a lot of time left before the exam.

"To help you study!" Blake pinched the bridge above her nose.

"Thanks for the offer Ruby, but I really need do this on my own and…and…" a smell that was both familiar and old wafted by. The smell of fresh baked goods, familiar due to Blake's own recent cooking experience yet… different.

"I thought you'd say that!" Ruby's smile didn't waver as her hands came out from the back holding a tray of… cookies? "So I made you cookies!"

Blake appreciated the sentiment, she really did. She knew the redhead was trying her best to help Blake study and it was true that Blake was quite hungry. "The… thought is appreciate-"

"They have tuna in them!" Ruby blurted out.

The old familiarity that Blake smelled… _so that's what it is!_ Blake's eyes widened as she subconsciously started to reach for one them. "Nope!" Ruby took a step back, even under her bow, Blake could feel her ears droop. "You get one if you can answer one of these!" Ruby produced a stack of… flashcards from binder.

Blake looked at the cookies, then the binder and finally on Ruby's determined face.

"Fine, but can I at least have one first?"

* * *

AU: What's this?! I'm posting a chapter right before my RTX special? Yeah basically. I still plan on putting out a chapter tomorrow and Saturday. Sunday is a bit more... iffy. I will try to, but I have a lot of work on both Saturday night and Sunday. I may just write it on Saturday and release it on Sunday.

I'm partially releasing this now, instead of, say, on Tuesday because I know a lot of the content creators for the fandom are currently enroute to RTX and therefore there is probably a lot of not having stories being updated/posted today. So have some ladybug!

See you all tomorrow! (well, you'll see what I've written... you get the idea!) Have a great night!


	29. Pancakes I

Let it not be said that Nora was not a patient person.

She and Weiss had made an agreement, a sacred pact if you will. Nora would find Blake and Ruby for her, in return Weiss would provide pancakes. It was a very simple agreement. Nora had fulfilled her end of the bargain; finding the white haired girl's teammates. Nora had made her terms clear; pancakes by dinner.

….yet it had been four weeks and still no pancakes! _This is unacceptable! _

In Nora's infinite wisdom and generosity, she had waited till after the semester finals had ended to do something… drastic. With that thought in mind, Nora started her super stealthy approach to the team RWBY dorm, under her arm was a… reminder for Weiss.

Xxx

Blake had decided to stay up late and reward herself with a bit of late night reading. She had finish the semester finals, and felt like she had done mildly well during them too._ I need to make sure to thank Ruby… again. _Blake sadly shook her head, _I really should have planned that for after finals… but on the other hand Ruby wouldn't have made those delicious tuna cookies for me… or helped me study. _

She couldn't help but smile at that thought, _I hope she makes more of those._ With a smile, Blake returned to her book, eagerly turning the page of the newest side story in her favourite book ser-

**Creak**

The door to the dorm slowly opened. Blake looked at it, her Faunus hearing being able to hear the small but audible creaking noise from the door as Nora opened it…. _What?_ "Nora?"

The orange haired girl looked at her, almost like a deer caught in headlights. "No no no you are supposed to be asleep!"

"Why would I be…be…" Blake's eyes focused on what Nora was carrying under her arm. "What is that?"

"That's a secret thing!" Nora whisper shouted.

The more and more Blake looked at it the more it looks like…. Something's head… almost like a horse's head. Except it was squishy and not of the proper colour… _and that isn't blood dripping out of it's neck_…

"Why do you have a pancake horse's head…. That's dripping syrup everywhere?" Blake inquired, already trying to figure out how to best clean up the syrup from the carpet.

Nora's face darkened, a wicked smile appearing. "Just reminding Weiss what she owes me."

"And you are showing this by putting a misshaped pile of pancakes on her bed…?" _If anything that would anger her._

"That's not the point!" Nora gestured at the abomination with her free hand. "I saw it in a movie once and it worked!"

Blake sighed. "What does she even owe you?"

"Pancakes for finding you and Ruby, remember?"

Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. In truth it wasn't Weiss' fault… Blake forgot to tell her that Nora had even found them. "I'll make you the pancakes as long as you stop dripping syrup on the floor."

Nora's eyes shined, as her wicked smile turned into a happy one. "Deal! I expect them on my plate by dinner tomorrow!" The bubbly girl skipped out of the room, already starting to eat the abomination she had been holding.

Blake shook her head as she got up from her bed to grab the cleaning supplies.

_It can't be that hard to make pancakes can it?_

* * *

AU: Short chapter sorry! Also sorry for releasing so late in the day... my plan had been to do it before work but that didn't happen, and then I got back and missed the livestream of the RWBY panel and yeah. Literally it started half an hour after work started for me and I couldn't even go back far enough to see any of it.

Remember how I said I'd do a chapter each day of RTX? I'm going to try my darnest, but Sunday is looking a bit... iffy. Just to clarify, I have thirty hours of work this weekend on top of the new RWBY stuff. (speaking of which, Qrow, Winter and team Funky&amp; Auburn... I feel bad for my friend Cynd... his team is now a canon team except not the way he wanted it I think lol). I did however say I was going to publish each day so I will try!


	30. Pancakes II

Blake had come a realization… besides making cookies, she was terrible at food making. At least if the pancakes were anything to go by. Blake had went at it in the same manner in which she had approached cookies, grab a couple of cookbooks and follow the directions. The problem was that none of the books exactly… agreed with each other. Like at all.

Slowly taking a piece of the most recent batch, Blake took a small taste. Munching on it slowly, the Faunus swallowed it…. or tried to, as its taste suddenly registered with her tongue, causing Blake to spit it out.

_How in the blue blazes does Ren make them taste so good?!_ Nora's partner was famous amongst the two teams for making pancakes, like a lot. Particularly good pancakes. Sighing, Blake dumped the rejected batch into the trash.

_I suppose I should try again. I never DID tell Weiss to begin so it's my fault_. Although Blake did have a bit of an ulterior motive for learning how to make pancakes. _As much as I know Ruby would like to receive more cookies from me…. She also really liked strawberry pancakes when Ren made them last time. Perhaps I can make them for her to say thanks for the studying?_ Blake nodded her head. This sounds like a plan!

With her goal in mind, Blake set to work making a new batch.

Xxx

Ruby Rose liked to think of herself as a courageous human being…. She was a huntress in training after all, was she not? She aspired to be a light in the darkness that was the Grimm, and save innocent lives from the monsters. Ruby led a team of huntresses even!

As courageous and brave as Ruby is, she still let out a scream when she walked into the dorm's kitchen, lured by the smell of pancakes and the hope of Ren's strawberry pancakes. Rather, there was a… thing, some humanoid like creature covered in a thick slimy brown substance that seeped onto the floor. It's cthullu like tendrils sprang towards the young girl, set on devouring her soul and all that she held sacred in thi-

"Ruby!"

"EEEeeeeeeeeeee-"the creature said her name, but that wasn't the disturbing part to Ruby, no, it was the fact that she knew the voice that it belonged to. "… Blake is that you?"

"Yes."

"How… how… why are you covered in…in…." Ruby squinted at it stuff. "What is that?"

"Syrup." The figure have a small shrug, bits of the syrup fell off it.

"How… what… Why are you covered in syrup?!"

"I tried to make pancakes." Blake said in a monotone voice. "I think I failed."

"I…what?" Ruby was extremely confused. How does making pancakes get you covered in syrup? "Do… do you want any help?"

"Please." Blake nodded furiously, the syrup continuing to drip onto the kitchen floor in front of her.

Several minutes later, Ruby and a significantly less syrup covered Blake were adding chocolate chips into the pancake creation. A thought occurred to Ruby, causing her to turn to Blake. "I'm surprised you aren't going to add tuna into it."

"These are actually for, Nora." Blake's gaze didn't leave the chocolate chips. "Apparently Weiss owes her pancakes that I forgot to tell her about. Ergo I'm making them in Weiss' stead."

"Oh." That made sense in Ruby's mind. "You should still make some for yourself!" Blake shrugged. "Let me get some tun-"

Blake grabbed Ruby's arm as she had started to walk towards the huge fridge, stopping the younger girl in her tracks. "I don't want tuna."

"What?" Ruby was flabbergasted, _Blake not wanting tuna? Is the end of the world upon us?!_ "I thought you loved tuna!"

Letting go of Ruby, Blake reached underneath the counter, pulling out a small bowl of diced pinkish meat before looking at Ruby, a pleading glint in her eyes.

"Can we try salmon instead?"

* * *

AU: 28 chapters later, Blake branches out and makes salmon pancakes. Yup.

Sorry if this chapter is rougher then usual, I'm really tired DX

Okay the future for a chapter on Sunday is looking kinda Grim (puns maybe intended). I have 18 hours of work at my job this weekend, and I could try and push it out tomorrow night if they tell me to go home early.

Thank you all for the reviews I've received! I really need to start responding to them, perhaps on Monday? I'll try! I know I need to respond to the Acceptance reviews soon, its been more then two weeks at this point I think? Sorry for those of you who are waiting for a reply, I swear I haven't forgotten about you! (Although now I want to do a Reese/Pyrrha ship... be still my heart.)

Part two of the special is over, part three will conclude this mini-arc tomorrow, or failing that, Monday morning! Until then, have a great day!


	31. Pancakes III

Ruby and Blake watched Nora carefully chew the pancake, as if examining to make sure it wasn't poisonous. It was almost unnerving to see Nora eat a pancake so slowly, considering she usually went by the pound with them.

Blake was quite nervous, even with the help of Ruby, she didn't feel completely confident in making something edible, especially after the disasters of the previous day. _I just hope Nora likes it._ Suddenly Nora grabbed her fork and started to shovel in the pancakes, the stack of them disappearing into her vacuum cleaner, the audible slurping filling the room.

"The debt has been paid." Nora turned to her partner, speaking in the most serious tone that either of the two members of team RWBY had her speak in. "Ren, call off the sloth assassins, the Schnee will live this day."

Ren sighed. "Calling off the sloths."

Ruby's eyes bugged out. "You had sloth assassins?!" To Blake, that even seemed like overkill, although maybe they really didn't have sloth assassins? _Who knows with Nora…_

"Why wouldn't I have sloth assassins?" Nora queried, curious eyes looking at Ruby, as if wondering how anyone could assume she DIDN'T have sloth assassins.

"Oooo, that's so cool!" Ruby started to ramble to Nora, asking all sorts of questions about sloths and assassins.

Meanwhile, Blake took a few steps towards Ren, the quiet member of team JNPR. Ren stared at her, waiting for a response. When none were forthcoming, he spoke up. "Yes?"

"Ren could you…." Blake felt embarrassed asking this, but she really wanted to surprise Ruby. "….could….. could you teach me to make pancakes like you do?"

Xxx

Ruby was having a good day; classes were on a temporary break, and the students were mercifully given a small break after the majority of finals. Sure, she had spent one of those days helping Blake make pancakes, which was enjoyable in its own way. However, Ruby was looking forward to the upcoming winter break, going home and seeing uncle Qrow, her dad and Zwei.

But for the moment, she was enjoying just the ability to play some mindless shooting games without having to worry about studying. The sound of unadulterated violence filled the room, as Ruby blew up zombie after zombie with a automatic shotgu-

Ruby smelled something, something that could only come from one thing; Ren was making strawberry pancakes! I am not gonna miss this!

Pausing the game, Ruby jumped up and sprinted towards the door, intent on dashing into the team JNPR dorm before Nora inhaled all of the strawberry goodness. So determined with Ruby that after bolting out of team RWBY's room, she nearly bowled over Blake.

Nearly.

"Sorry!" Ruby only gave a brief glance to make sure Blake was okay before continuing her dash to the JNPR dorm. What she saw made stop in her tracks.

Blake was holding a massive stack of pancakes, doused in a red tinged syrup that Ruby knew as strawberry syrup. More importantly the smell was emanating from the plate. Ren's famous strawberry pancakes. "D-d-did you get these from Ren?!"

Blake gave a smug smile as she shook her head. "Nope. But he did teach me how to make them." Pausing as she observed Ruby staring at them, Blake asked a single question as she brought the plate towards Ruby. "Want some?"

* * *

AU: Oh man, THIS IS FINALLY DONE!

I'm not going to lie, I'm running on two days with no sleep, and even though they let me out of work early, I didn't get around to this until the day was almost over. HOWEVER NEVER FEAR, LET IT NOT BE SAID THAT THIS AUTHOR DOES NOT DELIVER ON HIS PROMISES!

Although I fear for the quality, I'm just delirious enough from the lack of sleep and overwork to not care! So much apathy right now &amp; here!

Author-san is burned out and won't be writing any dilation for a few days a least! Now I should go get some sleep, and hope to bloody hell its restful sleep unlike the previous few nights.

Have a great night everyone!


	32. Black and White I

It had started off small.

Weiss had dragged them to the preparations being done for the festival, the white hair girl was happier then Ruby had ever seen her there. _She smiled so much actually creeped me out!_ From there they had moved throughout the city, eventually coming across a broken into Dust shop.

That was when it had started.

If Ruby was being honest Weiss was being more than a little insensitive, _I mean Blake IS a Faunus after all._ If she was still being honest, Blake's response was also… troubling. It should have been a clue or some kind of warning for what was to happen.

_After all, it wasn't every day you found out that your teammate, your friend, and possible crush was a former terrorist that specifically targeted your partner's company and family._

What had started as bickering had escalated to a full on argument by the time the team had reached their dorm. Weiss had even shed a bit of light about herself, something that Ruby hadn't been able to get the close lipped heiress to do over the course of the entire semester.

It had taken Ruby a moment to figure out what Blake had just said. Or rather what was implied. At first she had just thought Blake meant 'maybe us Faunus'. When Yang and Weiss both stared at Blake, their mouths open in shock Ruby replayed the sentence in her mind. That perhaps she wasn't just referring to herself as a Faunus.

The second clue that Ruby got that something was wrong was when Blake darted out of the room at a speed rivalling Ruby's own semblance. Then it started to click, she implied that she was a member of the White Fang, didn't she?

Ruby's first reaction was to race after her, bolting out of the dorm room and into the hall. The problem was that Blake was nowhere to be found.

"Wait, wait come back!"

Xxx

Ruby couldn't sleep. Her team (or at least her and Yang did) had decided to look for Blake tomorrow at a certain point. They couldn't find her in the dark; that much was for sure.

Sleep however eluded Ruby. She felt tired, but she just couldn't fall asleep, her mind was too distracted by the events of the day.

_Blake is with the White Fang. She's a terrorist hiding amongst us!_

That was what Weiss had said. Without Blake there, there was no one to defend her actions. _That can't be right, Blake isn't a terrorist. She can't be a terrorist… she's just Blake, right? Right?_

Her mind wouldn't let go of that possibility that she wasn't. Blake was a lot of things to Ruby; her friend, her teammate, and possibly… possibly someone to which the red hair girl haboured a crush on. Deep down Ruby did not want to let Blake's image in her head to be tarnish… yet without her there to explain herself, it was tricky. Ruby's heart said that Blake was a good person, someone who she could depend on. While her brain told Ruby that this was awful suspicious. _After all the innocent don't run…_

Hugging her pillow tightly, Ruby made a promise to herself; when they did find Blake to let her explain why she ran, why she turned off her scroll, why she was hiding from them.

She owed that much to Blake not as her teammate or team leader but as her friend.

Trying to get a more comfortable position to fall asleep amidst her mental turmoil, Ruby sighed, _this is going to be a long night…_

* * *

AU: Well ain't this a thing. Shoot out to NarfoOnTheNet for kinda guessing this.

Not gonna lie but today was suppose to be a Acceptance update as many of you may of heard. Never fear it should be out tomorrow. I hope. I do have the next next chapter of that started which I've never done before. Meaning that Chapter 14 will be out either before the end of the month or on September 1st.

But enough about a story that isn't this story (even though I'm sure there is considerable overlap in readership), time to talk about Dilation. I have put out a astounding amount of chapters in a short period when I was being over worked and had no sleep and RTX and yes it was shitty for Author-san. With summer coming to a close I'm going to put a lot more focus on Acceptance; I've been dragging my feet with it to be honest. Dilation is something I write because why not? So there might be fewer days for the next month or so when I post it. To be fair you guys are at Six chapters this month, and its only half over. Last month I only did seven total.

So my plan for posting this month is as follows; One more chapter for Dilation barring anything else and chapter 34 will be posted on September 1st. Unless I decide to be nice and write it earlier.

BUT BACK TO THE TOPIC AT HAND; yes I am finally doing it. Look at the chapter title then back at me, I'm doing this finally. IT IS NOW!


	33. Black and White II

Blake was having regrets.

She was regretting having kept her second secret for so long, for not telling her team what she had been_. I should have come clean with them as soon as the team had formed. That would have been the prudent thing to do._ But no, Blake had let her fears about rejection overwhelm her and in the end only told half of her secret after much prodding.

Most of all, she was regretting not stopping when Ruby had called out to her. _I want to come back, but… I just can't now._

Blake felt lonely.

That wasn't technically true; Blake wasn't completely alone, she had made a newfound friend in Sun Wukong after all, even sharing a afternoon tea with him. A new friend, however, did not replace her old friends. Her partner. Her team. The team leader.

Being truthful to herself, Blake missed even Weiss. It went without being said that she missed Yang and especially Ruby far more right now. As special as Yang was to Blake, she was her partner after all, Blake had grown far more attached to her partner's little sister, Ruby. While it was true that she had a crush on the girl, it was far more than just simple infatuation.

_It has to be, else why would I be thinking like this? _

Since Blake had left Beacon Academy she'd been worrying about Ruby. Specifically what Ruby would be feeling. She knew the girl had worries about being a good team leader to such a degree that there had been more than once that Blake had to help her fall back asleep after a nightmare of failing everyone. Not that she minded helping Ruby out.

So the fact that Blake was worried more about how her… departure was effecting Ruby then her current state led her to believe that perhaps it was more than a simple high school crush.

_None of this matters now, I ran away. I ran away from some of the only decent people I've known._ The idea of leaving the White Fang to make a fresh start, to have a purpose in life that wasn't about harming others… The hopeful optimist that Ruby represented, what Blake had used to be like before the White Fang had gone violent… that was what Blake had left behind when she fled.

_I need to stop running at some point. _

Blake could agree with that as much as she wanted, yet she found herself still not returning to her team. Instead she was staking out a White Fang location at the docks with Sun.

An activity notable for not being trying to talk things out with her team.

_Okay Blake Belladonna, how are you going to fix this?_

Truth be told, she didn't exactly know how. The most obvious choice was to return to her team and try and be honest about herself this time. _Not that there is much more for them to find out… _

The problem with the most obvious was that it'd be a great plan to do… if Blake hadn't already ran away. That didn't stop her from returning and trying to talk it out but it did make it more… difficult. The momentum to hide from them had already started to build since the beginning of the semester. It'd be easier to just keep on running from them…

_Except I'd lose my friends… I'd lose Weiss and Yang and Ruby. I'd lose my teammate, my partner and Ruby. I'd lose Ruby. The person who's first reaction to me lying was to call my ears cute and to pledge to help me. The person who hasn't turned their back on me once. _

That made the decision far easier to reach under that criteria.

_I don't want to lose Ruby. _

So running was out of the available choices. That just left the most obvious. _I guess I'll need to return after this… after we figure out what's going on here. I just hope the team…that Ruby will listen to me…_

* * *

AU: As much as I said I wouldn't write another Dilation chapter after this before the month's end, I'm pretty sure I'll write one on Tuesday and post then.  


Blake is being a sad kitty kat. This won't go on for long though! I need some fluff ladybug in my life!

**EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: **Forgive me for I have sinned; I've been writing some Ladybug outside of Dilation for Dani of booksandweapons fame. I'm not willing to post a new story for that but if you guys don't mind I will post it as separate chapters every so often in Dilation... the chapters are of comparable length. I plan on only doing about five chapters of it... or about 3,000 to 4,000 word story. The basic premise is that Ruby has her first day at University and texts Yang for advice on social stuff/friends. She texts the wrong number. If you don't want me to, tell me. If you want me to, tell me as well lol. If more of you leaves reviews saying that this is a bad idea, I'll just keep it or figure out a way to incorporate it into a future fluff collection at some point.


	34. Black and White III

Ruby was feeling several different emotions as she sat with her teammates in the dorm.

On the one hand she was relieved that they had found Blake – no that wasn't right, Ruby was ecstatic. During the time Blake had been gone, Ruby had been worried about the older girl's well-being, about if they'd ever find her again… if Blake was even in Vale anymore.

On the other hand, Ruby was scared. Very, very scared. True, they did find Blake after a day, but it had been a whole day. A whole night in which Ruby had thoughts going through her head, wondering if she'd ever see the older girl again.

In the end Weiss had been fine with Blake, saying it didn't matter what Blake had been. Ruby had been more than grateful for her partner's reaction. Yang had been chill with it as well. Ruby… well Ruby still didn't know exactly what she believed.

_I really need to talk to Blake._

* * *

Blake was curious when Ruby had pulled her aside for team leader 'stuff'.

If she had to guess, Blake would put all the lien she had to her name on it being about her past or the fact she ran away. _But Ruby doesn't seem to be the person to care about the past… she didn't care about me keeping the fact I have extra ears a secret… _

Still, Blake was worried as Ruby led her outside into the Beacon Courtyard – hood over her head - before coming to a stop near the fountain. The younger girl turned around, her mouth opening before closing.

It was clear to Blake that Ruby didn't know what she wanted to say, or at least how to say it. Maybe I should help? Blake cleared her throat to get Ruby's attention before speaking, trying to go for the gentlest tone she could muster. "We could always talk another time… it's not like I'm going anywhere…"

That got a reaction out of the girl, Ruby looked up at Blake, even with the hood covering most of her face. "W-why did you leave?" Blake tilted her head, Ruby's voice contained an odd… tone to it._ It almost sounds as if she is pleading?_

It was a question on Blake's mind constantly; why she had left the White Fang. Blake took a moment to mull it over before opening her mouth. "I guess… it's because they had become too extreme." Ruby cocked her head at Blake, confusion evident in her face_. I suppose I'll need to be clearer_. "I left the White Fang because what they had been become…" Blake sighed, it was hard enough discussing with Sun, but at least it was easier with a stranger. "What had started out as a peaceful organization had become... become-"

"Blake" Ruby's small voice interrupted her. "Why did you leave _us_?"

"I…" Blake's mind started to backpedal to come up with a reason other than the irrational fear of rejection. There was really only one answer she could give. "I was scared."

"You were scared?" Ruby sounded confused again. "Why would you be scared of us? We're your _friends_!" Ruby sounded hurt as she all but blurted out the last word. Blake's amber eyes stared into Ruby's misty silver on- wait why are her eyes misty? "We were scared for you, w-we didn't k-know if you'd come back."

**Drip.**

Blake didn't need her extra set of ears to hear the sound, nor did she need enhanced sight to see what was happening. Ruby was crying; the misty quality in her eyes were tears.

If it had been a few months ago, Blake would have felt slightly bad for the girl and moved on. If it had been a couple of weeks ago, she would have asked what was wrong. Now it felt like almost physical pain to know that her - Blake Belladonna - was causing the person she cherished the most, to cry.

Blake would describe herself as quiet, or at least introverted, yet pulling Ruby into the hug showed none of that. The flood gates opened as Blake felt the smaller girl sobbing in her embrace, her small arms wrapping around Blake, the red hood pulled back so she could run a soothing hand over Ruby's hair.

"I was scared." It was so faint that it was barely even a whisper, yet Blake heard it all the same. "I thought we'd never see you again." The red head moved around in the embrace until her eyes were looking into Blake's again. "Don't go again… please?"

Looking into the tearful silver eyes, Blake knew her answer immediately. "I won't run away again."

Sight of Ruby as she sniffled tugged at Blake's heart as the younger girl spoke again. "Y-you promise?" Ruby's arms tightened around Blake, as if she was afraid the Faunus would disappear on the spot.

Blake bent down, until their noses touched before giving her reply.

"I promise."

* * *

AU: Aww. They Eskimo kissed. Most cute.

I'm baaaack! Like an inexplicable plague, I'm back! The ladybug story I mentioned from before is currently being evaluated. I may post it some other time, currently I hit a snag with it. I did, however, post a new story today. It's called _Spoon Equality_. Essentially mix _Dilation_ with Pyrrha/Ruby and there ya go. It will update slower then Dilation, but if you like fluff and red heads you should check it out!

Lastly, new chapter of _Acceptance_ shall be out in a few hours!

Have a great day everyone, and thanks for reading!


	35. Vacation I

Blake couldn't help but feel relieved as the airship touched down.

_I'd half expected it to explode considering the last semester. _

Her first semester at Beacon Academy had been jammed packed with the unexpected; Blake wouldn't have been able to guess in a million years she'd still be in Beacon after someone learned about her past. Well, to be more accurate it was a number of someone(s), namely her teammates; Yang, Weiss and Ruby._ I thought that they might be alright with my ears, but I didn't think they'd still want me if they knew about… what I did before._

Not only did her teammates still trust Blake but two of them - Ruby and Yang - had invited Blake to stay with them in their home over the semester break. Ruby had invited Blake a while back to visit during the break whilst Yang had thought it was a great idea when she heard about it. _Which is rather fortunate since I'd be somewhat homeless outside of staying at Beacon over break…_ It was far more preferable to Blake to be staying with her friends instead of an empty dorm room.

Yang had promised to take her to a specialty book store, although of what variety… Blake could any make guesses on_. I really do need to spend more time with Yang._ The thing that Blake was most excited about, however, was hanging out with Ruby.

Blake eyed the two sisters. _First they need to wake up…_

While it was a relatively short travel to the island of Patch both Ruby and Yang had nodded off and fallen asleep. It's only a twenty minute flight. The Faunus shook her head. _I guess I got to read my book in quiet, which is nice. _

Stretching her stiff limbs, Blake got up to wake the snoring duo.

* * *

_I wonder what they're parents are like._

Blake had never heard much from either Yang or Ruby about them. She assumed that they were hunters in their own right and the sisters were just taking after their parents. In fact Blake didn't know much about their family other than they had an uncle named Qrow who taught Ruby how to use Crescent Rose. Yang did mention that their dad will be waiting for them at the terminal. Blake wasn't the tallest person around but she couldn't see anyone that looked like either of sisters. _Maybe he just isn't here ye-_

**Bark bark bark**

Blake had to suppress shying away from the noise as a small dog bounded through the crowd. _It's not that I hate dogs… I just wish they weren't in the same city as me. Especially yappy dogs._ The Faunus watched the corgi run around before starting to sniff the ground. It's beady little eyes staring at the ground as it alternated between drooling and sniffing. _It almost looks… familiar?_ Blake's eyes narrowed, _that dog looks a lot like the hellspawn that got into our roo-_

"ZWEI!"

A sense of dread started to permeate Blake's head as the dog's ears perked up as it looked towards Ruby. The trail of roses that suddenly appeared as Ruby sped off towards it, before scooping the creature up in her arms and hugging it.

"No." Blake whimpered quietly. _This can't be right, Ruby doesn't have a dog right? No no no no no!_ Wheeling around, Blake sought Yang's attention, her pleading amber eyes quickly grabbing the blonde's attention. "You… don't happen to have…" words were failing Blake causing her to point towards Ruby and that… thing. "Is that yours's?" Blake all but spat the word out.

Yang gave a quick nod with a sheepish smile. "Yup, his name is Zwei!"

Blake numbly nodded as she processed the information, watching a gleeful Ruby hug the demon-spawn, the fiendish abomination licking Ruby's face. _I'm going to have to... live with that?_

This was going to be a baaaad few weeks.

* * *

AU: Blake is having regrets right now like you wouldn't believe. I feel like I could do better but I feel like a complete pile of garbage. I think I may have the sickles.

400 FOLLOWERS! WHAT IS THIS?! In other news, thank you all for reading! I don't know why this is so popular but I'll keep on writing it, that's for sure!

New chapter of _Spoon Equality_ tomorrow!


	36. Tuna II

Blake was having a good day.

Perhaps it was the fact that Zwei hadn't bothered her in a while or the fact that she had just spent the past hour reading without being disturbed; as much as she enjoyed spending time with the sisters it was nice to have time to herself. Taiyang - the dad of the two - had offered to take all three of them out to lunch; Blake had opted to stay behind not wanting to get in the way of family time. And to catch up on the most recent Ninjas of Love book, that too. The proverbial icing on the cake was that she had been given free reign of the kitchen.

_The cookies should be done cooling by now_. Blake glanced at the clock, it'd had been a good while since they had been pulled out of the oven. _They may not be gooey, but the tuna should still taste pretty good._ Setting down her book, Blake got up from her chair and wandered towards kitchen.

Turning around the corner from the living room into the kitchen what greeted Blake was not her beloved baked abomination but… _crumbs?_ _Where'd my cookies ago?_

There was naught a single cookie left on the tray. As Blake stared at the tray in confusion a sound garnered her attention.

**Bark bark**

The hellion trotted lightly towards her. Blake purposefully refused to look at it, _maybe if I don't acknowledge it, it will leave?_ The sound of it sitting down next to her destroyed her hope, causing Blake to let out a sigh. _Great now, I have to deal with the… creature and I can't find my cookies. _

Several minutes of searching the kitchen ended had Blake come up empty handed. What was more grating was the demon-spawn was just sitting there, panting, as if it was gloating over her failure to find baked goods. _Where could they have gone?_ Blake was beyond perplexed at the situation. _Ruby and Yang aren't home, and I know Ruby wouldn't eat them anyways, she doesn't like them._ Blake's eyes drifted around the room. _So where could they b-_

Zwei was holding a cookie in his mouth.

As Blake sputtered to find words, as she struggled to find words in her vast vocabulary to even describe her thoughts, the beady little eyes stared into her amber eyes, before turning around and walking off.

_This means war._

* * *

_I wonder what Blake has been up to?_

Ruby wondered as the trio made their way back into the house. Ruby had been sad that Blake hadn't gone with them to lunch, but it was nice to catch up with dad. _We even grabbed some sushi for Blake!_

The first smell that greeted Ruby when she stepped into the house was that of baked goods. The second was that of something burning.

_Oh no, is Blake okay?! _Ruby dashed into the house, led by her nose towards the kitchen.

Inside was something that could only be described as a mess; food ingredients were scattered everywhere, cupboards were flung open, Zwei was covered in some green hued jell-o and Blake's butt was smoking, as if it had been recently on fire.

As Ruby stared at the scene in front of her, a single thought flashed into her head; the last time she had seen Blake try making food.

"Did… did you try making pancakes again?"

* * *

AU: Okay, I really am not conscious and I only feel worse than Thursday, but I wrote this because HEY LOOK ITS THE SIX MONTH ANNIVERSARY TODAY, WHEE!

Also this will make 30,000 words so thats neat! Now time to go off to my seven hour shift.

Thanks for reading this guys and girls! Sorry if quality really dropped this time around D:


	37. Vacation II

"Are we there yet?"

"Nope!"

Silence greeted Ruby in return as Blake and her continued to trek through the woods. _I'm surprised she didn't ask where we were going until now, it's been at least an hour since we started up the hill with heavy bags too!_ If their positions had been reversed, Ruby would have asked at least after the first ten minutes especially considering how cold it was outside. Instead Blake just trudged on in silence, content to follow Ruby to wherever she led.

Turning around Ruby addressed her sole companion. "We're almost there." Blake gave her a brief nod in return. "We just need to get to the top!" Ruby pointed into the dense thicket of trees in front of them.

A few minutes later the duo made it into a clearing as the evening light grew dim. "Okay, we're here!" Ruby huffed as she set down her heavy backpack before flopping down, sinking into the couple of inches of snow that covered the ground.

Blake on the other hand set her backpack down on a rather large rock before looking over towards Ruby with a curious expression. "So what's next?"

Pulling out a bag of marshmallows, Ruby gave a gleeful response. "Now we make s'mores!"

* * *

It hadn't take long to get a rudimentary fire going - after all Ruby had done it many times before. Nor did it take very long to get the marshmallows to get warm and gooey. It took even less time for the gooey treats to be consumed by the two. With that out of the way, the two started to set up a small camp – after all they were going to be out only for a single night.

Presently Ruby was lazing about, leaning against Blake while older girl read a book in the light of the campfire, Ruby occasionally reading bits of the book. It was a comfortable silence. A silence oddly enough broken by Blake, amber eyes flickering towards Ruby. "I'm pretty sure we were supposed to set up the camp first, then have s'mores."

Ruby gave a frown as mock-offense bled into her voice. "I'm pretty sure _I'm_ the camping expert here." Blake raised an amused eyebrow. "Besides, are you saying you didn't want s'mores first?" A mischievous grin tugged at the corners of Ruby's mouth.

"I…" Blake held up a finger as if to contest the fact before lowering it. "No, you're right." Blake sheepishly admitted in defeat.

* * *

"You know you don't have to wear your bow out here, right?"

The embers of the fire were starting to lose their glow when Ruby asked the question. It'd been on her mind for a while; _if Blake wears it to hide it from other people, there isn't anyone out here to hide it from!_ Perhaps a more selfish reason was because Ruby wanted to see the cute ears again, _they are cute after all…_

"I suppose not… I could take it off…" Blake looked at Ruby with curiosity while the hand not holding the book went fiddled with the bow. Curiosity turned into a wry smile and a teasing tone. "Do you want me to take off my bow?"

"Um." Ruby had not expected this turn of events. "I mean… uh…" She could feel a heat in her cheeks. "It's not like you can…um… take it off very often and-they're-very-cute!" Ruby blurted out the last part. _Oh dust I said that out loud… _Ruby pulled her hood over her head in shame only for it to be pulled off gently by Blake.

Looking at Blake was not what Ruby expected; instead of some teasing or something that Yang would do, Blake had taken off her black bow, redness visible in her cheeks. "There." Blake gave Ruby a shy grin. "Better?"

Ruby nodded enthusiastically "Yup~!"

* * *

"Blake?"

"Hm?" The black hair girl had nearly fallen asleep; huddled against Ruby for warmth after the camp fire had died out, Blake's eyes were fighting a losing battle against staying open.

"Look up."

Amber eyes were no longer fighting a losing battle as Ruby watched Blake stare up at the vastness of the stars. It was a change of pace to watch the normally calm and collected girl stare in awe of the twinkling dots in the sky. _I did promise to take her stargazing after all!_

While Blake was mesmerized by the vast array of constellations, Ruby was losing her own battle to stay away. Not quite stifling a yawn, Ruby got up to get into her sleeping bag. Or at least she tried to until Blake gently grabbed onto her arm. "You don't have to go to sleep yet…"

The pleading quality in Blake's voice stopped Ruby in her tracks, causing her to sit back down next to the Faunus. Almost immediately Ruby felt her eyelids start to droop. "But I'm tired Blake…" Ruby knew she was whining but the day had been long and she really wanted to sleep. "At least let me get a pillow or so-eep!"

Ruby felt herself being pulled into Blake's lap, the older girl's arms securing her from falling over, her back resting against Blake's chest. "Are you comfortable now?"

Ruby nodded, too tired to respond with anything. It didn't take long for her to drift off to the land of dreams in Blake's arms, the sense of safeness only added to it.

* * *

AU: Finally get a call back to that Stars chapter. Finally!

I'm discovering I have less time/drive to write at the insane pace I used to for Dilation. Which probably means going from three chapters a week to one or two a week. Which is still a lot considering I write three different stories right now. Usually I will update before work on Saturday, but since I didn't have work yesterday, you get the update today before I start a ten hour shift, wheee!

Unrelated note; as of yesterday, September 19th, 2015, I've been watching RWBY for exactly a year!

Have a great day everyone!


	38. Vacation III

Ruby was feeling extremely comfortable.

There was warmth, blankets, white noise, and an extremely comfortable bed that was keeping her in place, gently holding her onto it, her head nestled against two very soft pillows. Not that she minded; the bed was very comfortable and warm after all.

_Wait, beds aren't usually warm and holding me…_

Forcing her eyes open, Ruby's vision revealed a mass of black hair. If it had been yellow, it would have been slightly less alarming but it was not – she had a lot of nightmares as a kid and Yang was always there for her. But this wasn't Yang. Now far more awake, Ruby slowly loosened the cocoon that enveloped her, the cocoon making a disappointed sound that sounded oddly familiar. It was to no great surprise that the bed – and owner of the black hair - was none other than Blake.

The events of the night caught up; taking Blake up to the top of a hill for stargazing, the Faunus not wanting her to go and pulling Ruby into her lap. That was where Ruby's recollection ended.

_How'd we get tangled up in Blake's sleeping bag? _

As she pondered the question, Ruby started to feel more than a little cold; with the sleeping bag's seal broken, cold air started to rush in. While Ruby tried to connect the dots, Blake instinctively pulled her back to her spot, trying to keep warm.

Ruby didn't even try to fight the blush as she was pressed against Blake's chest. While it was true that she quite enjoyed spending time with Blake and even cuddling, it was still a bit… awkward to Ruby. It made her feel… _weird_.

Like wanting Blake to never let go of her, and just stay in this sleepy embrace. That she was glad Blake spent so much time with her; the Faunus spent more time with Ruby then with her own partner. The fact that Blake had promised to never leave again… it made Ruby feel a special warmth in her

_Is this what having a crush feels like?_

Before she could even answer that, an old popped into her head; _What's so bad about having a crush on Blake anyways?_

It led Ruby to the very easy conclusion: _Nothing is bad about that. _With that, Ruby decided to just enjoy the cuddling, wrapping her arms around Blake as much as she could. It wasn't long until her comfortable spot started to lull the girl into unconsciousness. A single thought crossing her mind before Ruby crossed over to dreams.

…_I wonder if Blake feels the same about me?_

* * *

Blake awoke to a very interesting feeling.

It was like someone was massaging a very particular spot and it just felt _divine_.

But that wasn't what woke her up, no, it was the sound of something groaning. No, that's not quite right, more like someone was giving a low sustained hum. It felt so deep that it was making Blake feel the vibrations – that or it was quite close by. Trying to crane her head around to find the source, that feeling and the sound stopped, as weight left the top of her head.

As she took in her surroundings, several things occurred to Blake. First and foremost was that she was holding a sleeping –and slightly snoring Ruby – against her. Second was that the two were bundled up in a sleeping bag in a tent. Lastly, that Ruby's hands were beneath her head.

It took Blake a while to realize what had been happening.

Ruby's hands had ended up resting on top of her head and had been the source of _that_ feeling. Namely giving the best massage to her ears that Blake had ever felt. The other realization was a bit more… _shameful_.

Sure, Blake was cocooned with someone who she quite dearly liked and had quite a big crush on in the middle of the nowhere by themselves. _But…_

The feeling that Ruby's hands given had been so good that she had been… purring.

Blake was very much closed off when it came to other people touching her extra set of ears. Or making jokes about her heritage – _Yang notwithstanding_. The fact she let Ruby convince her to take off the bow at all was a great sign of trust to her. Yet…

Her ears were something very personal to her; she always wore a bow, even during most of her time in the White Fang. The fact that Ruby had been touching them was just… different to her. Even as her mind turned the issue over and over, Ruby's hands found her ears again. To her great shame she could already feel the purring start in the back of her throat.

Even as she started to drift off, Blake started to figure out how to stop it. _I could always just take her hands off. That's always an option. Just gently take them off and put them around me, or something_.

Blake never took that option.

* * *

AU: Look at these two, all cuddling and sleepy. So cute.

I swear I'm not trying to reduce Blake to a cat. She just really liked the feeling okay. The fact she left Ruby doing what she was doing is suppose to be a sign of trust, seriously!

Sorry for not posting a chapter last week, I've been a bit busy and all that good stuff. Acceptance chapter 15 will be posted when I get home from running errands!

Thanks for reading everyone and have a great day! :D


	39. Ribbon III

"So you hold it like this?"

"Yes, better." Blake's quiet voice carried through the small clearing. "Now trying flicking it outwards horizontally."

Ruby looked at her left arm; a twisted ribbon wrapped around her wrist linking her to Gambol Shroud. Hesitantly flicking out her wrist, Gambol Shroud started to go to the end of its tether as Ruby pulled the weapon around her in a slow and lazy arc. Well half of it anyways, the other half was securely strapped to Blake's back, the elder girl leaning against a tree close to the camp site.

Morning had been interesting to the two girls. The two of them had woken up in a rather… interesting position, huddled together in a sleeping bag. Singular. Not that Ruby was disappointed by the turn of events, or completely unsurprised; _after all, I did wake up to that last night… I just didn't want Blake to freeze was all. Plus it she was comfy. Yeah. That's i-_

"Ruby!"

Blake's voice pulled Ruby out from her thoughts. "Hu-woah!" The lazy arc had started to lose it's perfect curve, the Gambol Shroud was starting to wobble due to the lack of focus. Refocusing, the arc steadied itself. Giving a inward flick of the wrist, the weapon came back to Ruby, the girl awkwardly fumbling with it before catching it. Sheepishly rubbing the back of her head, Ruby turned towards Blake. "Oops, heh heh…"

"It's fine." With the weapon now safely in Ruby's hand, and not spinning around, Blake crossed the clearing, walking past Ruby as she talked. "You just have to be more mindful of what you are doing with it, is all." Finally stopping in front of a rather dead looking husk of a tree, Blake gave it a light pat it. "Try hitting this."

Waiting for Blake to go back to her old spot, a safe distance away from Ruby possibly messing up, Ruby focused on the tree. Okay, just need to hit the tree. "Blake?"

"Yes?"

"Uhhh…. How do I hit stuff with this?"

Blake gave Ruby a curious look before giving a resounding face palm. "I forgot to teach you that." Striding quickly over to Ruby's side, Blake gave a quick motion. "Try doing this."

Blake took a step back, leaving Ruby to try and replicate what she had just seen… only for the weapon to make half the distance before embedding into the ground. "Um. I don't get it, how is it different from what you showed before? You're just flicking it outward, right?"

"Not quite." The Faunus picked up Gambol Shroud as she walked towards Ruby, handing it to her. "Here," Blake put her hand around Ruby's as she stepped around the girl, "try it again."

A part of Ruby was quite happy to have Blake standing behind her, as she could feel heat rising in her face as she tried the motion again.

This time, however, it worked, well in a weird way; Gambol Shroud sailing across the clearing before sinking nearly a foot into the tree. Not quite cutting through the husk, but reaching the mark. "That's better Ruby." The girl felt a bit of pride as Blake removed her hand from her own. "Now pull it out and try again."

That was easier said than done, as the weapon was deeply sunk into the trunk of the tree, no matter how much Ruby pulled, it wasn't budging. "I think it's stuck."

"Let me try then."

Unlike Ruby, Blake was able to pull out the blade, but with an unexpected result. Ruby may have forgotten she was still linked the weapon, she may have even forgot how to properly control it… the moment it came out, a unconscious flick of the wrist resulted in the whirling blade careening around the two.

In short order, the two of them were quite stuck together. Far from disappointed in her ability to control Gambol, Ruby was in fact quite okay with the turn of events.

_I could get use to this…_

* * *

AU: Well, this chapter turned out to be a bit lamer than intended.   


So I feel like I've been lacking on my Dilation recently and I intend to rectify that for the next few weeks. Expect more chapters and pardon me on this chapter, I think I'm starting to get rusty on my Ladybug D:

OH YAY, MY POSTER FOR THE TOURNAMENT JUST ARRIVED WHEEE!


	40. Vacation IV

Blake didn't think asking 'what's for lunch' would result in her crouched on the embankment of a river, fishing.

_I knew I should have realized something was up when breakfast with those pancakes…_ Ruby had made breakfast, saying she was going to make her favourite kind of pancakes. Blake had thought, HAD THOUGHT that they might be chocolate chip or double chocolate chip pancakes. She was wrong.

Solid chocolate pancakes.

_I don't even know how you could make pancakes OUT OF SOLID CHOCOLATE!_ It had boggled her mind and she could almost feel years being shaved off her life as she ate them, _but they were so good!_

After spending all morning helping Ruby try and understand how to use Gambol Shroud properly, as well as being tangled up in it with her – a very productive use of her time in Blake's very bias opinion - Blake was ready for an actual meal. She soon found out why they had solid chocolate pancakes for breakfast.

Ruby had only double checked the food for s'mores when she had packed and had forgotten everything else.

Hence why the pair found themselves fishing for something at a nearby river.

They were huddled together for warmth, Ruby's cape draping over both of them as they held their fishing lines and waited. Blake had gone fishing before, although it had been a long time she was still used to the game of patiently waiting for the fish to nibble on the hook. Ruby on the other hand, was not the most patient of people and had started to snooze within a few minutes of sitting down.

_She really likes her sleep, doesn't she?_ Blake wryly thought as she pulled in her first fish of the day, dumping it onto the embankment before throwing her line out again.

_I should be mad at her, but I'm not. What if there wasn't a river nearby? We'd be going hungry! _If it had been someone else, like Weiss or Yang, Blake would have felt at least a little animosity towards them for forgetting to pack food. _Although I don't think Weiss would have forgotten in the first place._

_Then again… maybe I just like the fact we are going to be having fish,_ Blake guilty admitted as she stared longingly at the growing stack of fish next to them.

_Perhaps I just didn't want her to feel bad? That could be it. That could definitely be it._ Blake cared for her friends true, but with Ruby it was a bit different. She had bonded to her over the course of their first semester and, well, had a crush on her. _I have to wonder, does she feel the same?_

It wasn't the first time she had entertained the notion of the softly snoring girl liking her back, or as Nora would put it, wanting to be 'together-together' with her. The biggest obstacle to that, was the fact that Blake wasn't exactly willing to disrupt what they had going. _Although… it would be nice to take it to the next level._

A quiet breeze blew through, making her ears twitch.F

_I still haven't put my bow back on._

Ruby had asked Blake to take off her bow when they had first arrived… yet there was nothing to keep her from putting it back on. Conversely, she had no reason to put it back on. _It's the longest time I've gone without wearing since I can remember, to be honest. _

_Plus Ruby likes my ears. _

It made Blake feel warm to know that the thing that made her different was something that Ruby liked about her, that Ruby found them 'cute'.

Pulling out the tenth fish from the river, Blake took stock. _I think that's enough for now, time to wake up Ruby and skin them._

* * *

The meal had been better than Blake had thought it would be.

True, it was closer to night than mid-day by the time the two of them finally ate, but they certainly had their fill of delicious fish. But there are also perks to the night. One such thing was having the stars come out again.

They were fascinating to Blake, as someone who had always lived in the city, where the ambient light was enough it drowned out most of the twinkling points, the small forest they were staying in had none of that light pollution. For once she could finally see the constellations her books mentioned, the stars making clear the ancient figures of lore looming in the sky.

That, however, wasn't the best part of the evening. No, it was when the two had decided to retire for the night. It seemed Ruby hadn't been only forgetful when it came to food, but had forgotten a second sleeping bag. The two had to share one like the previous night, the difference was that it was voluntarily instead of Blake not wanting to search for Ruby's sleeping bag while half asleep.

Blake couldn't be happier with the turn of events as she cuddled Ruby close to her, the sleeping bag helping in the endeavor by pressing the redhead against her to begin with. A thought drifted through Blake's mind as she drifted off.

_This is the best vacation I could ask for. _

* * *

AU: Blake is having fun. LOOK AT HER HAVING FUN, DAMN IT! I swear Ruby makes every ship so much more fun.

Okay, I thought I was going to post a new chapter on Sunday for Dilation, but I was in error! I'll probably post the next one sometime next weekend - work permitting as well as THE HYPE OF NEW EPISODES NOT DESTROYING MY CONCENTRATION!

No joke, the easiest way for me to lose my writing flow is for new content for RWBY to come out. Weird isn't it?

Hope you guys are excited for the new episodes! I am, that's for sure!

Light pollution is a real thing and it makes star gazing very difficult.

Finally, Dilation achieved 100,000 views a little while ago, thank you all! It means a lot to me that you've stuck with this for reasons I still can't figure out! :P

Have a great day and thanks for reading! :D


	41. Vacation V

"How was camping with Ruby?"

It was an innocent question with a far too non-innocent tone accompanying it. _Not that I would expect less from Yang._

"It was quite fun." Blake merely replied.

If there was one thing Blake had learned to do when talking to Yang and really didn't want to be teased, was to keep it short. Limit the amount of ammunition that Yang had to throw back at her.

The blonde was having none of it, however. "Sooo what'd you two do for three days?" Yang glanced down at her cards before looking back up. "There isn't a whole lot out there after all. You're turn." Yang put a card face down before focusing her gaze on Blake's hand.

"Stargazing." It WAS the reason for the camping trip after all. "Ruby promised to show me what the stars looked like at night during the break." Blake did a few moves before ending her turn.

"Aww, I liked that card." The blonde discarded it before starting her turn. "Haven't you seen the stars before? It's not like they are going anywhere…"

"I… not really?" Blake gave a small shrug. "I guess I never really took the time to look at them, y'know?" The memory of both nights were engraved into her mind's eye; the twinkling points out in the sky, Ruby and her sharing a sleeping bag. "It was just… really nice."

"Well it sounds like you had fun." Yang favoured her with a genuine smile only for it to morph into a cheeky one that gave cause for concern. Yang flipped over her card eliciting a groan from Blake. "I do believe, my dear partner, that you are dead."

"Best nine out of fifteen?"

"As much as I'd like to keep kicking your butt, Zwei needs to go for a walk." Blake groaned. As much as she liked staying in Yang and Ruby's house, the dog was the one thing she couldn't stand, _with its beady little eyes and deceive-_

"Remnant to Blake, you there?" A hand was waving in front of her face brought Blake back to the present.

"Sure."

* * *

"How come you don't like dogs?"

"I just don't." Blake could hear the unasked question. _Might as well nip it in the bud_. "No, it's not because I'm a feline Faunus."

"Oh. Well if you say so." The two continued their walk, Blake lagging slightly behind Yang and Zwei. Minutes passed. "So what'd you guys do during the day?"

"Hm?" Blake thought for a moment. "Remember that time Ruby tried to use Gambol Shroud?"

"Yup!" Yang suppressed her snickering. "I still got pictures of it too! Wanna see?" The blonde didn't give Blake a chance to say anything before tossing her scroll at her, the pictures already pulled up.

Blake fought off a blush as she looked at the picture of her and Ruby caught in the ribbon's hold together. A repeat happened during the camping trip, not that Blake was complaining. It had been an excuse to be close to Ruby after all. "Yang, why do you still have these?"

Yang pouted. "Because you two looked cute, that's why." She shook her head, her long yellow mane swishing. "But enough of that, what does that have to do with camping?" Lilac eyes looked questioningly at her own amber ones.

"Ruby wanted to learn how to use Gambol Shroud properly." Blake shrugged. "So I taught her."

"Aww that's so cute!" The big sister within Yang had clearly taken over. "Rubes really does love her weapons. I tried to show her how to use Ember Celica… but they sent her flying heh heh heh…" Blake could just imagine the force from the gauntlets sending the teen flying, Ruby is pretty light in all fairness. _Not that I would know from her sleeping on top of me, nope._

Blake found herself going through the photos as the two walked in silence, the occasional bark from Zwei being the only noise. These are actually kinda… cute. It was nice to see evidence that she had friends, even if it was because her partner was holding it as blackmail material. Probably.

"You like Ruby a lot don't you?"

"Huh?" _Act natural Blake, be a cool cat._ If Blake wasn't trying to act natural, she would have groaned at her own pun. "Ruby is a good friend and team leader, yes."

"I think it goes a bit beyond being a friend." When Blake raised an eyebrow to that, Yang pointed to the scroll. "You've been staring at it for like… a minute."

_Deny everything. _"No I haven't, it's only been a couple of sec-"

"Your face is redder than Ruby's cape."

"…"

"Am I that obvious?"

"To me, yeah you are."

The two walked in silence, a very awkward silence air to it compared to before. "I know it's between you and Ruby, so I really don't have a say with it but…" Yang's voice took on a tone that Blake seldom heard directed at her. "If you two like each other, go for it."

"Thanks. It means a lot to me." Blake breathed a sigh of relief; this is going better than expected. "I don't know if Ruby feels the same about me…"

"I think she does."

There was no hesitation in Yang's voice when she responded, no uncertainty. No hint of deception. That sent Blake's mind into a whirlwind. "I've known Ruby since she was born…" Yang stopped walking, turning around to look at Blake, lilac eyes focusing on her again. "I know Ruby pretty well Blake, she likes you too."

Blake couldn't think of what to say, or was there anything even to say to that? When it was clear Blake was at a loss for words, Yang continued. "I'm not saying that you should ask her out right now or anything, or even that it'd be a smart thing to do… just that Ruby cares for you. She really does."

"I just don't want to ruin what we have." Blake replied in a small voice. The thought of losing what she had now was terrifying. "I'm happy with how it is now, having a team and friends." Blake looked down at her feet. "With being friends with Ruby."

Blake felt herself pulled into a gentle hug, unlike the normal bone shattering ones that Yang gave. "Then forget I said anything… Just know that if anything does happen, I'll be happy for you both." With that, Yang went on as if nothing had happened.

Yet the idea persisted in Blake's head as the day went on.

_Ruby feels the same about me._

* * *

AU: What? You thought Yang was going to be disapproving or something? Nah, she is all for it if it happens. Blake is just a scared kitty cat when it comes to change. It's always been bad for her in the past.

Yang is a big nut when it comes to board games and cards for that matter in my head, hence the card game haha.

SO HOW ABOUT THAT EPISODE?! Yes, I did see it, it was quite good! I do have the sponsorship. I'm not spoiling anything but I have to say the animation has improved immensely compared to the first volume and even the second.

For those who read _Acceptance_; it should be done on time! My editor and I are hard at work on it! :P I might try and do a _Spoon Equality_ chapter tomorrow as well. Might being the keyword!

Anywho, have a great day everyone and thanks for reading! :D


	42. Costumes

"You excited for tomorrow?"

Blake gave Ruby a quizzical look. "What's tomorrow?"

"Halloween…?" _Blake knows about Halloween, she has to,_ _how does someone not know about Halloween? It's like the greatest holiday ever! After Dustmas. _

It took a moment before recognition showed on Blake's face. "Oh, the one about scary stuff?" Ruby nodded enthusiastically as Blake continued to give her a curious look. "Why would I be excited about it?"

It was inconceivable, INCONCEIVALBE, to not be excited about Halloween to Ruby. "B-b-b-because trick-or-treating and costumes and-and-and… FREE CANDY!" Ruby blurted out.

Blake stared back at Ruby, uncomprehending.

_Did I say something wrong?_ Yet as Blake continued to stare at Ruby it occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, Blake might have never celebrated the holiday before. It dawned on Ruby. "You've gone trick-or-treating before, right?"

Blake shook her head, her amber eyes still puzzled. _She's never celebrated Halloween before?_ "Should I of…?" This had to change.

Ruby slowly nodded her head. "Everyone does it… that's what we're going to do tomorrow, you're coming with us I thought. Unless you don't wanna…"

"Sure, I don't mind…?"

Ruby favoured Blake with a grin before cupping her hands around her mouth. "YANG!"

A few seconds later of feet padding along the floor and Yang's head leaned through the door way. "What's up sis?"

"We need to get Blake a costume!"

A mischievous smirk appeared on Yang's face.

* * *

"Are you sure this is… wise?"

"Yup~!" Ruby stated as she put on her costume. It was looked simple enough to Blake; the teen was wearing a witch costume. It was perhaps one of the more stereotypical witch interpretations that Blake had heard of; a black outfit with a cape –eerily similar to the normal red one she wore- a pointed black hat with a large rim, and even pointy shoes. The image was complete with a massive broomstick._ Although that's a bit oddly shaped for a broo- Wait. _

"Is that," Blake pointed at the prop, "Crescent Rose?" _It couldn't be…_

"Yup!" Ruby brought it in front of her before taking off a fake wood cover that was velcro'd on, then pulling the straw bit off the end.

It was Crescent Rose.

Blake had a single thought on her mind which she voiced.

"Why?"

Ruby frowned. "Everyone's going in costume, why not Crescent Rose?" As Blake question the absurdity of it, Ruby put the fake wood finish and straw back on the High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe. "You should get into costume too!" Ruby's eyes were brimming with excitement. "We're gonna be going pretty soon!"

Skipping out of the room to go check on Yang's progress, Blake turned to her costume.

The three of them had gone out shopping last night for a costume. It took a while to find a costume that Blake liked – _not a 'sexy-maid' or the like_ – or one that fit her. Yet as she stared at her choice, a single thought crept into her mind.

_I'm going to look silly. _

* * *

Ruby was ready to go.

_Costume? _Ruby could feel the weight of it on her. _Check!_

_Zwei's costume?_ The corgi had a black cape, and a black masquerade mask covering his eyes. _Check!_

_Yang's costume?_ Her sister had finally emerged from her room in costume; a black vest, black gloves, shorts and a short duster._ I still don't think it looks all that different from what she usually wears, but whatever, check!_

All that left was Blake. "You ready yet?"

Instead of answering, the door open, the teen walking out to join them.

"Are you sure that this is what people do?" Blake looked at the collection of costumes, a upraised eyebrow. "I don't think our costumes match very well either…" It wasn't disapproval in her voice, rather it was concern.

Before Ruby could even answer, Yang jumped in; "Yeah, of course we have a theme going! We're the witch," Yang gestured to Ruby, "the superhero," Zwei, who happily wagged his short tail as everyone glanced at him, "the boxer," Yang pointed at herself, "and the ladybug!" Yang finished by gesturing at Blake. "We're all wearing black!"

Blake raised a finger in protest, her mouth opening but the words dying in her mouth. There was still doubt in Blake's mind, Ruby could clearly see that;_ it looks like I'll have to show her how awesome Halloween is!_

Grabbing Blake's hand, Ruby zoomed out of the house, the Faunus trying her best to keep up.

"Onward! TO CANDY!"

* * *

Yang smiled at the two. _Blake is going to have an interesting first time trick-or-treating I bet. _Giving a small chuckle, Yang looked down at Zwei.

"I guess it's just you and me tonight buddy."

* * *

AU: I posted something! Yay! Also two parter!

As for costumes:

Ruby is just a witch because it's a classic

Yang is going as Tifa because hahaha remember that Death Battle? :P

Zwei is Batman… dog. You get it.

Blake is a ladybug.

Crescent Rose is a witch's broom. Honestly can you imagine Ruby NOT giving Crescent Rose a costume?

Thanks for the reviews last time guys and girls! I'm was surprised at the fact that people actually didn't mind the fact I decided to go with "no-drama-llama big sister stuff". I mean it's a little drama-y but still. So that was pleasantly surprising!

*Unrelated note: I'll try and respond to reviews more often! I still need to finish responding to all of _Acceptance_ tho O_O

OKAY SO, Real life has been super busy and I'm really sorry for not posting more as of late, especially with _Spoon Equality_ (for those who read it!). I'm still planning on _Acceptance_ to have a new chapter this Friday as well as _Dilation_… aaaaand maybe _Spoon Equality_ if I have some extra time on hand!

If you are wondering why this is posting after Halloween it's because I need to finish reading a bazillion books and I worked yesterday and I probably should be writing a paper right now hahahaha haha ha haaa... *sheepishly rubs back of neck* Okay I should do that now.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day! I look forward to seeing y'all on Friday for my story updates! :D


	43. Trick or Treat

_How much longer are we going to be out here?_

Blake kept repeating that thought in her head, as the she struggled to keep up with Ruby.

The process repeated itself over and over, the two would go to a house, ring the doorbell, say the same phrase –trick or treat- and be rewarded with candy. _Or apples, oddly enough._

There didn't seem to be an end in sight as Ruby led Blake to what must have been the four hundredth house. It was getting to the point where Blake was concerned about the integrity of her bag. _It's not a cheap plastic bag, but it's getting quite heavy and the material doesn't feel that sturdy, it'd be bad if it broke…_

"Hey Ruby," The speed-demon-witch turned around, the broom-scythe balanced on her shoulder with a bag of candy tied to its end. "How much longer are we going to be out, tonight?" There were almost no trick-or-treaters still outside as the moon started to rise in the night sky. "Isn't it getting a bit late?"

The unrelenting advance to the next house finally stopped as Ruby looked around. "I… I guess so." The younger teen pouted. "Aww, I thought we had just started, we haven't even gotten t-", Ruby's eyes widened. "We haven't gotten to the best house yet!"

Before Blake could even respond, a cloud of rose petals were all that was left where her team leader had been. _Did she just leave me here? I guess I should call-_ Ruby reappeared as fast as she had left, a horrified look on her face. "I'm sorry!" Still not giving Blake a moment to speak, Ruby sped off again, this time leading Blake by the hand.

If Ruby's pace had been considered fast before, now it was just downright insane, Blake thought as she more or less flew down the streets. If it wasn't for the fact that she'd spent the last semester around Ruby, Blake would have fallen on her face almost immediately. Instead, she let herself get pulled along.

"Where… where are we going?!" Blake had to yell to be heard over the sound of the rushing wind.

"We haven't gone to the best place yet!" Ruby was giddy with excitement, more so than she had been for the last three hours, her silver eyes gleaming despite of the inky black of night.

"King-sized candy bars!"

* * *

When the rose petals finally stopped following them, they found themselves in a deserted part of Patch.

"A-are you sure we're in the right place?" This section of the island didn't even look inhabited, in-fact decrepit would be a good way to describe it.

"Yup!" Ruby nodded her head vigorously before point towards a cul-de-sac. "He lives right over there!"

While the dark proved no obstacle to Blake due to her Faunus heritage, it didn't change the fact that it was still quite… creepy to be alone in an unfamiliar place at night_. Not quite alone; I have Ruby_. Blake glanced at the girl before going back to scanning the area. _But there isn't anyone out…_

What made it creepier was Blake couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, that someone or something was following them as they made their way towards a particular dwelling. From Blake's experience, that 6th sense of being followed was usually right, yet even with her night vision, she couldn't see a single other living creature in the neighbourhood.

Ruby on the other hand, seemed to be right at home amongst the decaying buildings, an extra skip in her step as she led Blake up to a door. A door that led to a complex that had no lights on.

_I don't think we should be here. _

Before Blake could voice her thoughts, Ruby knocked on the door. Instead of the door being unlocked and a person coming out, or something _normal_, the door creakily opened from the small force of the knock, revealing an unlit entryway.

"Trick or treat!"

When no response was forthcoming, Ruby shrugged dejectedly, "I guess he isn't home…" her excited smile wilting as she turned around, slowly trudging back to the street with Blake in tow. As much as Blake didn't want the teen to be sad, she was very, very happy that they were going to be leaving this place soon, _the sooner the better!_ "Maybe he went to our h-"

"Boo."

Blake Belladonna considered herself to be a well-read individual with a large vocabulary. While she wasn't always the best at communicating, Blake liked to think she was quite dignified in how she spoke and always choose a rather educated word choice.

Blake was anything but dignified as the gravelly voice startled the Faunus, causing her to scream in terror and latch onto the closest thing to her: Ruby. Ruby, on the other hand, twirled around, opening her arms towards the source of the sound, only for Blake to all but jump into her arms, in an attempt to find safety.

The effect was comical as the larger girl half-hid, half-held onto the smaller girl as if her life depended on it.

"Blakeeee what are you doing!?" Ruby started to wobble under the extra weight. "I'm going to fall!"

Blake couldn't reply, as she stared in terror as the speaker staggered towards them, some kind of tool in his hand for devious purpos-

Ruby collapsed under the weight of her, depositing the girls painfully on the ground.

_We are going to die. The candyman is going to kill us. We are going to d- _

Surprised was an understatement, as Blake felt a hand roughly pulling her up and on to her feet. The unkempt man then helped Ruby up before the small teen gave him a hug.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here." The man finally spoke, his gravelly voice carrying a gentle tone as he hugged Ruby. "Yang came by a few hours ago," His red eyes focused on Blake. "Said you were bringing a friend along." He cracked a wry smile. "I didn't expect her to be scared so easily, you okay?"

Blake numbly nodded her head as the man reached into his pocket, pulling out two king-sized candy bars, dropping the first in Ruby's bag before tossing the second into Blake's. With that, the man meandered his way to the open door, before closing it.

"What… who…" Blake looked at the door, then Ruby, then back to the door. "W-who was that?"

"That's my uncle Qrow!"

* * *

**AU**: My aunt used to give out king-sized candy bars. When she moved out of my neighbourhood, she didn't realize that the new one didn't celebrate Halloween… so much chocolate that year…

If you are curious, the reason Uncle Qrow wasn't there, was because Ruby and her friend hadn't showed up yet, so he was worried that something happened. So when he spotted them walking around, he decided to see if he could scare Ruby's friend (Yang may have asked really nicely to do that too. Or not. Whatever you want to believe). Its why Blake thought they were being followed. She was not wrong.

I may have tried to be intentionally vague about Qrow so canon can screw me over less in the coming weeks. Lets see if it will work. I'm doubtful.

SO HOLY CRAP, WHY IS THIS STORY NEARLY AT 500 FOLLOWS?! WHAT?! WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?!

OKAY, THIS IS FINALLY DONE! Two down, one to go! _Acceptance_ shall post in an hour! :D


	44. Binder

"Ruby?"

Blake found herself meandering through the halls of Beacon, searching for her missing team leader. _Is she still back in the room?_

It was the day before classes started up for their second semester; yesterday they'd all came back to the academy. Tomorrow might be the start of classes, but they still had one more day of their break, and unlike the majority of it, Weiss was with them once more, having returned from Atlas. In essence, today was the last day to do something as a team… _so where was Ruby?_

_She wasn't in the room when I woke up… or the cafeteria_. Which brought Blake back to the question; where was the caped team leader?

Of all places, Blake did not expect to find Ruby at the library. Scribbling something into a huge binder. "Isn't that Weiss'?"

The scribbling promptly stopped as the Ruby flailed about, "Ack, Blake, where did you come from?!"

"The cafeteria." Blake deadpanned. "We were wondering where you were, although now I'm wondering what you are doing with Weiss' binder… does she know you took it?"

"I am not a crook." Ruby pouted. "As for what I'm doing…" Ruby heaved the huge binder up, which had been hastily retitled 'Best Day Ever Activities!', "Just planning out our day! We are going to have the most fun anyone has ever had… ever!"

Blake couldn't help but smile at the goofy smile on Ruby's face. "Alright. Are you sure we can fit this all in… just… today?" Blake skeptically skimmed through the binder. "I don't think we can go skydiving and then watch a movie in less than an hour…"

"We could… watch it…" Ruby's shoulders drooped. "Did I over plan?"

"Just a little."

"Aww." Ruby limply leaned back in her chair. "I guess we could cut out a few things… we probably won't get time to do a food fight." Ruby turned to Blake. "What do you want to do today?"

That was actually a good question, _what do I want to do today?_ Blake was more than happy to just follow whatever her teammates, her friends, wanted to do. _I guess I'm more of a follower then_. Still, there had to be something Blake wanted to do with her friends.

_Ideally, it'd be to go to a book store, although I don't think others would enjoy it so much. Yang would probably die of boredom, as well as Ruby. Weiss might like it. Maybe_. As Blake shifted through her idea of a good time, a singular thought arose, a place that she'd been meaning to see ever since she got to Vale. _I don't think the others would want to go to the May Queen maid café…_

_Think Belladonna, think! Where else do you want to go?_ After what must have been an awkward silence for Ruby, Blake finally spoke. "I… I really don't mind where we go, as long as we go as a team. Perhaps just go to Vale and see what happens?"

"I guess we could do that." Ruby stared back at the binder. "Ooooor we could do laser tag!" Bright silver eyes stared at Blake. "Us vs Yang and Weiss! Or we could challenge JNPR!"

Blake couldn't help but chuckle, it sounded like a good plan to her. "Sure. But you do know that breakfast is almost over, right?"

The expression of shocked horror on Ruby clearly communicated that she did not that small detail. Quickly grabbing onto the binder, Ruby dashed off in a flurry of rose petals…

…or she would have, if it hadn't been for the fact that the binder was heavier than she was. "Um. Blake. A little, help please?"

"Here." Blake hefted the heavier than lead binder. Or rather, she tried to, the binder barely budging off the table before slamming back down. "How… how did you get this thing here, Ruby?" _Wait, Weiss carries it around all the time… how strong is she?!_

"Um… carefully and quickly?"

"I… how…"

"I had a cart, but it broke." Ruby sheepishly admitted as Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. _I could probably carry it, probably. It's just going to be heavier than hell._

"I suppose I could carry it... but only if you walk back with me."

"Deal!"

* * *

AU: Less shippy and more "I need to progress out of semester break NOW!"

This was a troubling chapter for me; I needed to get to vol 2, without actually just rehashing a fight or do a complete introspection chapter. So this is the result.

Totally referenced the skydiving opening :P

SO NOW THE FREE PEOPLE can watch the new episode, you guys like? I thought it was probably the second best in the series, right after No Breaks (more like No Blake, eh? Eh? Okay that was bad, and I am sorry).

I miiiiiiiiiight be able to get a new chapter out for _Dilation_ on Thursday this week too! Going to be working the Mockingjay opening, so it'd be nice to put that out before work that day. Speaking of which, off to work I go!

Thanks for reading and have a great day/evening/unit of time! :P


	45. Interlude: Replaced

While team RWBY meandered through Vale, Weiss felt… jealous.

Jealousy was not a feeling that someone such as Weiss should feel, she knew that, it was… beneath her to feel that petty. That she shouldn't feel that way just because her partner spent less and less time with her. That she had been replaced.

_I don't get it_, Weiss watched Ruby lead Blake into an arcade_, I thought we were partners, ergo close friends?_ It made sense to her. Your partner is the person you are closest to, _but I don't feel close to Ruby at all anymore. _

When their first semester had started, Ruby and her were more or less, well, inseparable. Not that Weiss hadn't tried to separate herself from Ruby; it got more than a bit too much for her sometimes having the younger teen constantly trying to interact with her. Looking back at it, as much as Weiss had found Ruby to be annoying it was still nice. It was nice to have someone who genuinely wanted to be your friend and not because of your name.

Towards the end of the last semester, it felt like that closeness was slowly receding as Ruby spent less and less time with Weiss and more with another one of their teammates; Blake.

It was little surprise to Weiss that Ruby knew about Blake's… heritage, given the amount of time the two had spent together. What did surprise Weiss was the fact that Blake had stayed with Ruby and Yang over the semester break. _No, that's not quite right, it didn't surprise me, it also hurts._ Her teammates, no, her friends, spent the break together. Without her.

Weiss felt alone.

At first Weiss had assumed she was feeling needy, that she was perhaps being a bit too harsh on Ruby when they studied and that was what was pushing her partner away. During the break, Weiss had made a promise to fix whatever… issue had come up, to reconnect with her partner.

Yet Weiss felt more alone than ever, her partner was off with Blake, almost entirely ignoring her._ I suppose I have been replaced. _Weiss let out a sigh. _Did I screw up? Was it something I did? _

_Or perhaps Blake is just better than me?_

_No, that wasn't the case_. Weiss knew the answer all too easily; Ruby had a crush on Blake. Ruby could never be considered subtle, so it was obvious why her partner was spending more time with Blake. It didn't change the fact that the declining absence of Ruby was affecting Weiss. Even with Ruby spending more and more time with Blake, Weiss had hoped that the younger teen would still make time for her. _You'd at least think she'd want to spend some time with me, but no, n-_ "Ow!" Something or rather someone, flicked Weiss in the forehead. Considering that the she only knew one such person who would do such a thing, and she was in the company of said person, it narrowed the choices down. "What was that for Yang?!"

"You were staring at the arcade door for like, five minutes." Yang's usual cocky grin morphed into a more concerned look. "And you were sighing like the world was gonna end."

"No I wasn't!" A certain lack of black and red alerted Weiss to another issue. "Wait… Where did Ruby and Blake go?"

"They're inside, playing DDR last I checked, or at least, they were when I came out." Even as the question rose in Weiss' mind, Yang already had an answer for it; "You were lagging behind and I was curious, what's on your mind?"

"I… nothing. Now if you will excuse me-" Weiss made her way towards the door. Or would have, had Yang not have grabbed onto her arm.

"Weiss, I'm being serious." There wasn't a hint of the cockiness in Yang's voice, it was closer to the tone that she used when she spoke to Ruby. "What's on your mind?"

Weiss sighed, shoulders slumped in defeat. "A lot." Yang's grip loosened on her arm as Weiss turned around, her arms clutching her sides. "Just… a lot."

Yang nodded her head, much to Weiss' confusion. "Yup. Looks like we need to talk."

* * *

"Why are we at McVale's?"

"The better question is why you got a salad." Yang gestured towards a pre-made salad in front of Weiss.

"Because I don't want to die before I'm thirty?" Weiss raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Which you are probably going to if you eat that… that monstrosity."

"Aww, you gotta live a little, princess." Yang pouted before taking a bite out of said monstrosity. Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to not watch her partner's sister eat herself into an early grave, as Yang scarfed down more calories than Weiss probably had in two days in a matter of minutes. "So what's on your mind?"

"…" Weiss didn't exactly know how to answer that, _I mean how do you?_ There was a lot on her mind, but the particular issue that Yang was asking about was… sensitive. If I say it out loud, I'm going to sound like a needy little girl. That was definitely an image that Weiss didn't want to give to anyone. So instead, she just sat there, picking at her salad, eating small bites of it.

"Come-on, what's bugging you?" Yang pestered her, breaking the silence. "There has got to be something."

The white haired girl sighed, I suppose I might as well be honest. "Ruby."

"In what way?" Weiss could feel the mood shift as Yang calmly set down her food and leaned forwards, elbows resting on the table, her fingers interlaced. She looked… menacing. _No, that's not right._ Yang was being serious.

"I don't think she wants to be friends with me anymore."

Yang's lilac eyes widened in what Weiss could only describe as surprise as she leaned back, the menacing atmosphere evaporating as soon as it came. "Don't be silly, Ruby is your friend. Why wouldn't she be?"

"I would not be so sure." Weiss set down the cheap plastic fork, her eyes drawn to it. "We haven't hung out like we used to –mind you, the dolt didn't give me much of a choice- in fact, I barely see her outside of meals and class. We, don't even study together anymore."

"That's not necessarily true. You two were hanging out until a while ago." Yang pointed out before sipping on a Dr. Piper. "Just because you don't study together doesn't me-"

"No, you don't understand." Weiss glanced up from the fork to find curious lilac eyes staring at her. "Ruby replaced me." It hurt, it physically pained Weiss to say it, to admit it.

Yang's head tilted, her long mass of blonde hair moving in sync with it. "Why'd you think that?"

"Perhaps because the dolt decided that I was too harsh on her? I don't know, why else would Ruby abandon me?" Weiss had resumed focusing on the cheap fork. "I thought we were close friends, then she stops hanging out with me and then she and Blake become inseparable, how else would you expl- explain…"

Yang started to laugh.

Not some kind of small chuckle or giggle, but a deep laugh, one that came from the gut. It wasn't some forced expression, or awkward thing, no, there was real mirth behind it.

It made Weiss furious.

"Well since my situation is so amusing to you, I believe I'll take my leave." Weiss stated coldly as she got up from her seat and headed for the exit. Leaving her salad and teammate behind, Weiss all but broke into a run as she left McVale's behind.

The one person that Weiss had hoped, had HOPED would help her reconnect with Ruby, mend their friendship had just laughed in her face at the problem. It hurt even more than being excluded over the semester break. _Even with people who don't care about my name, I still can't make friends. _Weiss could feel her eyes water as her thoughts progressed. _I guess I am completely hopeless_. The run slowed down to a walk before a standstill as Weiss found herself in the middle of a sidewalk_. I am the loneliest of all, after all._

"Weiss?!" A blonde mass of hair weaved throughout the streets. "Hey Weiss, where'd you go?!" Weiss ignored the voice, her standstill slowly turning into a very, very slow walk as she started to make her way towards where Blake and Ruby presumably were, the arcade.

"Hey wait up!" Weiss paid the voice no heed as it got closer. Close enough that she could practically hear the footsteps of its owner. "Sorry 'bout that, I was goi-"

"I don't care Xiao Long." Weiss stated flatly as the footsteps followed her. "You made your thoughts on the matter abundantly clear. Please leave me alone."

The footsteps quickened, the blonde hair entering Weiss' vision as Yang jogged in front of her. "Weiss, just listen to me for a moment, oka-" The footsteps stopped as Yang stared at her. "Are… are you cryi-"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Yang winced at Weiss' tone, it was cold. Colder than you'd expect from someone who was crying, almost emotionless. "My closest friend, or at least the person who I am partnered with has all but replaced me! Her oaf of a sister literally laughed at my face when I thought I we were having a serious conversation!" Weiss started to tick them off on her hands. "And the person who replaced me will probably never see me as anything BUT a Schnee, so you tell me Xiao Long, why shouldn't I be crying when none of my teammates will be someone I could consider a friend?"

The response was immediate and unexpected; Yang didn't shy away, or yell back at her, no, instead Weiss felt herself suddenly being pulled in a hug from the taller girl. Not some kind of quick friendly hug, but a comforting one. A type of hug that Weiss had never had before. "I'm your friend."

"I…but, you were laughing at me!" Weiss tried struggling out of the wall of muscle that was holding her in place to no avail. "Let go of me!"

"No." The answer was calm and immediate. No indecision. "I laughed because… well, 'cause you are missing a key thing 'bout Rubes." Weiss could feel Yang take a deep breath before letting it out. "I'm not supposed to say this either, mind you, but Ruby has a huge crush on Blake."

Weiss had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. It was something that everyone, even the dunce of a human being, Jaune, could pick up on. "Everyone and their weapon knows that, your point?"

"So it doesn't mean you are being replaced!" Weiss wasn't convinced, as evident of her continued struggle to break free. "Ruby still thinks the world of you… she still considers you to be her friend, one of her best friends." The struggling lessened as Yang went on. "If you really are worried, you should talk to her, I promise she'll hang out more with you if you just ask. She just… happens to be spending more time with Blake now is all?"

Weiss mulled over the new information after Yang finally let go of her_. Perhaps I am just being illogical about this; why not just talk to Ruby directly?_ It made sense. Weiss groaned, the oaf actually made sense for once. "Well. I feel silly for worrying about it now." Taking a step back from the blonde girl, she started to turn back to the direction of the arcade. "I suppose we should be heading back there no- eep!"

The white haired girl felt a familiar sensation as Yang pulled her back into a hug. "Don't forget, I'm your friend too. I always will be."

Suppressing her immediate inclination to push Yang away, Weiss instead hugged her back, her thin arms barely wrapping around the tall girl, a small smile stretching her lips.

"Thanks Yang."

* * *

AU: I'm guessing this wasn't what you were expecting at all.

Before you ask, I know the question will pop up; No, I am not planning on making this a freezerburn story as well. If it becomes one, that is not my intention to be completely honest.

This chapter stems from three things; 1. I wanted to address Weiss since… she would be feeling very left out, especially after their semester break. 2. I really haven't written any Weiss or Yang stuff –at least of any depth- so I wanted to get some practice in. 3. Gotta do some freezerburn stuff for ASouthernRussian (my editor for a lot of my stories).

This is the only chapter that I actually seriously edited because, like I said above, this was a exercise in writing characters I normally don't write. Even Yang I only ever write in the context of her relationship with Ruby instead of her acting outside of the big sister role.

In the end, this chapter didn't have the feeling I wanted it to have in the end, so I may come back and retroactively edit it… if I do, I'll mention it in later chapter's author's note.

Second-to-lastly, I don't plan on having these little interludes very often, maybe every ten or so chapters? Give or take?

Finally, how did I do? Like I said, this was an experiment in writing characters I usually never do, so I'm curious to how well/poorly I did with the characterization.

Thanks for reading everyone, and expect a actual Blake and Ruby chapter on Sunday! :D


	46. Wax

"Someone took the last box of cookies."

Ruby could feel the eyes of everyone in the group immediately turn to her. "What?" It took her a moment to realize why everyone was staring at her. "You… you couldn't possibly think that it was me?!"

The unblinking stares of her teammates and friends only confirmed her suspicious, Yang putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay if you did it Rubes, we were saving it for you anyways."

"But it wasn't me!" Ruby felt offended that people would suspect her -her!- of all people! _Why would I ever steal the last box of cookies… I mean I do like cookies, but I would never STEAL them! Not once in a million years! Except for last Tuesday, but that's 'cause the cafeteria ran out of them... BUT THAT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE! _

Yet none of her friends seemed to believe, merely shaking their heads before wandering off to what they had been doing before. "But… but I didn't do it…" No one seemed to listen to her. That's not fair, don't I get a say? Apparently not.

_I have to prove my innocence! _

* * *

Blake was not expecting the sight that approached her.

_Maybe it's not so much as unexpected as I didn't know what TO expect._ Blake might have expected Ruby to find her in the library –it would be no surprise considering how much of her time she spent in it, what she didn't expect was Ruby to be wearing an overcoat, a deerstalker hat and- _is that a pipe?_ "Ruby, what are you doing?"

Ruby blew a series for rather colourful bubbles out of said pipe, before taking it out of her mouth. _Thank dust that isn't real, Yang would have a heart attack._ "I'm going to prove my innocence!"

"Uh-huh." It took Blake a moment to figure out what Ruby was wear, is she trying to look like Sherlo- unimportant. Blake shook her head. "Prove your innocence for what exactly?"

"The cookie heist!" Ruby's arms flailed about. "Everyone thinks I did it!"

"Alright." Blake, herself, thought the culprit was standing in front of the Faunus. "So why did you come to me…?"

"Because I need help."

"In Victorian era clothin-"

"Nope! Read a lot of books right? So you're smart?"

"I'd like to think so." Blake couldn't keep the pride out of her voice as she responded. _I do read a lot of books after all… although I don't think that makes me inherently smart._

"Could you pleaseeeee help me?" Big silver eyes bore into Blake's amber ones. They didn't just stare at her, but through her, reaching the very depths of her soul. An small part of Blake was scared at the amount of control those eyes held over her as she found herself nodding.

"Okay... so where do we start fir-eep!" Blake felt a hat of some kind suddenly being thrown on her head. Gently picking it up, it looked familiar. "Is this a bowler ha-"

"To the crime scene!"

* * *

"So what are we looking for?"

Ruby's investigation had come up short upon reaching the aforementioned crime scene. _There needs to be a clue here… or something!_ Instead, Blake and herself were standing around a empty cookie jar, scratching their heads. "A clue of course!"

Blake raised an eyebrow at the smaller girl. "Alright, but what kind of clue?"

"Uhhhh…." Ruby didn't have an answer for that. There just had to be something here that didn't fit, something to get the two on the path to exonerating Ruby's good name. "Something that isn't supposed to be here?"

"Something like this then?" Ruby glanced over to find Blake holding an odd looking container. "I found this next to the cookie jar."

It was a tin of some kind that Ruby had never seen before. "What is it?"

Blake read the label carefully. "It says gentlemen's mustache wax."

"Ewwww!" Ruby backpedaled from it. "Who even uses mustache wax?!"

"I think I might know someone one."

A few minutes later, Ruby found herself being led by Blake through the academy before finally stopping in front of a door, the Faunus knocking twice.

"Come in!" A voice from inside answered. It was a voice that Ruby knew for it was one that she heard on a daily basis, even before the duo walked into the office: Professor Port. "Miss Belladonna, Miss Rose, and to what do I owe this fine pleasure?"

Blake pulled out the strange container. "Does this wax belong to you?"

"Ah, I've been looking for that! May I?" Port asked before Blake handed it to him. "I must have misplaced it yesterday, I had to use my reserve wax this morning because I couldn't find it. I was actually thinking I must have gone through too much last month and already used this up, but I knew it mustn't be the case, after all, I stopped doing two waxings a day to just a singular morning waxing, far healthier for the hair, you see."

It was suddenly clicking in Ruby's head as Professor Port droned on and on. _If it was his mustache wax at the crime scene, then he must have taken the cookies!_ "Professor Port!" Ruby interrupted his long spiel. "Did you take the cookies from the cookie jar?!"

"Yes."

"Wha-huh?" Ruby hadn't expected his guilt to be admitted so easily. "Wh-why did you take the cookies?!"

"Well you see, I was trying to think of ways to attract Grimm, given I'm running out of them for my live demonstrations. So I asked myself, 'If I was a Grimm… what would garner the attention of a specimen as fine as myself?' Having just passed the cookie jar, I had my answer. Alas, in my haste to capture some of the monsters, I forgot that they do not eat food. So I ate the cookies after a night of attempts at capturing the wily Grimm."

* * *

"Wait, really? It was Port?" Yang fiddled with her hair. "I wasn't expecting that."

"I find it hard to believe." Weiss stated. "Not impossible, just hard to believe."

"It was Port." Blake said flatly.

"Interesting." With that, Weiss returned to her studies.

"Well, it looks like this case has been solved thanks to the cunning efforts of detective Ruby and her trusty side-kick Blake!" Ruby proudly proclaimed.

_I think it was the other way around_, Blake mentally noted, _either way, it was quite fun._

* * *

AU: This is mostly based off Booksandweapon's art of offended Ruby gasping.

Well I don't have much to say this author's note, new chapter will be Tuesday for Dilation. I probably will slow down production in December due to real life stuff.

Thanks for reading and a have great day everyone!


	47. Coping I

There were some days in which Blake just felt down.

Not as in the physical version, although her posture was probably suffering from all the slouching she did while reading. No, Blake was feeling depressed. _Not quite depressed, I suppose, just down._

It was days like these that Blake retreated into the world of the written world entirely. True, she spent a lot of time in the library, reading from the myriad of books that the Beacon library held and true, to the average passerby, it wouldn't seem any different from how Blake normally was. But to Blake it was different.

As Blake turned page after page, she wasn't so much trying to enjoy the fairy tale she read as much as she was trying to get lost in it, pulled away from reality and its melancholy ways, by fully immersing herself in the struggles of the fictional characters. It barely mattered what the story she was reading about even concerned, all it mattered was how much she could escape life by delving into it, by losing herself to a book's tales.

_If I had to be completely honest, it's a coping mechanism. _

Over years, Blake had turned to books when life hadn't been even remotely fair. While she may have been considered a terrorist or even less-then-human because of her ears, books held a solace to Blake, a place where none of that mattered. The books and their stories didn't care if a human or a Faunus read them. A book couldn't discriminate. It just… was.

_Perhaps that's why I like them so much?_ Blake idly mused as she turned the page, _it's one place where all are equal._ Blake had dedicated her life to fighting for equal rights for her people, yet it was only in the confines of the pages of musty tomes that she found that equality in effect.

Those musty tomes held stories of intrigue, of battle, epic adventures and of romance. Stories that were timeless in their telling… even after reading them several times, Blake always found a new tidbit, or a new angle in them when she reread them. It was… nice. More than nice, it provided a safe haven for Blake to be in, a place where her mind could roam freely, exploring the narrative without having to feel that downward feeling. To feel that her struggles for most of her life had been pointless endeavors, that they only made humans hate and mistrust the Faunus more.

The others are probably worried about me. At first her teammates and friends didn't know what to do when Blake went off to the library on her own, day in and day out. Most of them probably assumed that Blake was just doing what she normally did, spending most of her waking time reading… that there was no difference between the urgent speeds at which she read now compared to her usual leisurely pace.

Weiss left Blake to her own devices the vast majority of the time, so it really was not difference in that regard. Blake's own partner had probably picked up on it… there had been a number of times when Yang had joined Blake in her library excursions. As much as Blake appreciated her partner's support, she'd also wanted to be alone. Yang seemed to have figured it out after a time, although she still checked up on Blake every so often. Ruby was different.

_I might consider her the person I am the closest to, but I wish sometimes she'd notice._ It was a selfish thought to be sure, but there were times when Blake felt very selfish. It wasn't that Ruby didn't notice so much as she seemed to give Blake an inordinate amount of space. Which, was nice in its own way, Blake would rather have the opposite at times like these_. Perhaps I'm just being selfish_, Blake shook her head before turning the page only to find she was at the end of the book. Setting the book down, Blake got up to get a new one. _I suppose I just try a new one for once, instead of rereading wh- _

Blake's thoughts stopped as she swore she saw a red blur dart into the aisles of books.

_I could have sworn that was Ruby…_ Shaking her head at what must have been a figment of her imagination, Blake settled back down in her chair with a new book and started to read.

That must have been my imagination... or could it have been her? Blake peered over top of her book, only for the red blur to briefly appear, disappearing once more into the aisles. _This isn't my imagination is it?_

This time Blake started to walk as silently as she could towards the aisle before looking around the corner. The only occupant of said aisle was a cloaked shorter girl, with red tinged hair who was doing a remarkable job at hiding in the hood of a red cloak. "Ruby?"

"Oh, Hi Blake, um, fancy meeting you here…" Ruby awkwardly shuffled her feet. "I…um…uh… I was reading this book!" The teen held up a small book, whose title Blake could barely make out.

"You were reading a book on lion taming?" Blake raised an unamused eyebrow. "Interesting."

"I..um…" Ruby's shoulders slumped. "No, I wasn't."

"…"

"...you were being sorta kinda moody and I was worried, okay?"

"Moody?" The eyebrow continued to be raised.

"Yeah." Ruby slowly nodded as she nervously fiddled with the book. "Sometimes you get really quiet and just start reading. Yang said that's when you wanted to be alone, buuuut I'm the team leader and you're friend, so I wanted to make sure you were okay." At this point Ruby had started to ramble at a speed that hinted at her semblance. "But you looked like you were really into the books and I didn't want to disturb you but I wanted to check on you an-"

"Wait." Blake held up her hand finally stopping the myriad of words, her brain slowly processing them. "How long have you been here?"

"Um… since two books ago?"

Blake thought for a moment. "So about six hours?"

"I… guess?" Ruby shrugged.

Blake sighed, _and all this time I thought she was just avoiding me_. "You know you could have come at any point…" Blake tried to give Ruby a reassuring smile, although it felt like a weak one, even to herself. "I don't mind you when I want to be alone." With that, Blake turned around to walk back towards her chair…

…Or would have, had two small arms closed around her, a red cloak wrapping around her. "You know we're worried when you get like this, right?" It was Ruby's voice to be sure, but it sounded smaller than how it normally did, almost fragile. "I… I worry a lot."

That small, fragile voice tugged at Blake, her arms wrapping around the smaller teen, the two almost entirely covered in Ruby's cloak. "I don't… I don't want you to worry Ruby, I'm fine." Blake slowly shook her head. "I'm fine."

"A-a-are you sure?" Ruby's head shifted, so the two were face to face. "Do you… do you want me to go then?"

The Faunus shook her head vehemently. "No. No I don't." A small smile tugged at the corners of Blake's mouth. "Actually… would you like to read with me?"

"Only if I get to pick the book…"

"Deal."

* * *

AU: Heeeey look at this. It has feelings and stuff. Yay.

I have to imagine that Blake reads a lot for why I did in middle school and highschool, as a form of a coping mechanism with life. I'm not saying my childhood was bad, just I had social anxiety and it helped me deal with that. Blake probably has other issues, but the effect is the same. Dunno, it's a headcanon of mine.

This is mostly inspired by Dani (booksandweapons)'s doodle of Ruby hugging Blake and covering her with the cloak. Also sorta a belated birthday present for her. Happy extremely belated birthday Dani!

Next chapter I will post will be _Spoon Equality_ on Friday, and _Dilation_ will next in a week, so next Tuesday!

Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great day! :D


	48. Coping II

_Why does Blake get like this?_

It was a question that Ruby pondered as the two quietly sat in the library, reading a book.

The pattern took Ruby a long while to figure out; at first she didn't even notice Blake disappearing for longer than she normally did, instead just chalking it up to that was how the Faunus normally behaved. _Blake likes books, so it'd make sense she'd read them a lot, right?_

Ruby didn't start to notice the pattern until after the incident in the closet, the way that Blake would seclude herself off and just read. While Blake may not have been the most social member of the team, most times she'd read even when other people were around; it didn't normally bother her to have others around. In fact, it'd almost seem the opposite to Ruby; Blake enjoyed being around others, even with her nose behind a book.

The facts were not adding up in Ruby's head. _Is something causing Blake to feel this way? Did I do something?_ That question got thrown out almost immediately: _no, it's not me. If it was me then why would she want me to read with her?_ While that answered one question, it still left the big question of why.

_Maybe she is just feeling sad?_ A brief glance at Blake's face told Ruby nothing, the black haired girl having an ever present neutral expression as her amber eyes scanned lines of text. Blake looked no different from the norm to Ruby… until she noticed the teen gripping the book tightly, her fingers clenched around and knuckles pale. It was perhaps the only sign that this was not some leisurely reading for Blake. The indication that there had been good cause for Ruby to check on her friend and make sure she was okay.

Blake had been quieter than normal during breakfast, not even responding with more than one word answers. Class had been even quieter, the teen engrossed into a book she had brought with, reading it during the lecture despite Weiss' disapproving glare. After class had ended for the day, she'd disappeared to the library. While it wasn't the first time that it'd happen, or that Ruby had noticed, it was the definitely the first time that Ruby had realized that perhaps… something was wrong.

_I have to cheer her up… but how?_ The shorter girl wracked her brain for the answer only to come up with naught. That was of course until she spotted a very empty looking drink container. _I could buy her a drink!_

Jumping up from her spot, Ruby started to dart off towards the small café located within the library. _Wait! I don't even know what Blake wants… probably should ask first_. Spinning around on her heels, Ruby was greeted with a peculiar sight; the neutral expression had changed to a frown only to flit back to what it had been. _That's weird…_ "Blake I wanna treat you!" Ruby could have sworn that the ever-present bow twitched. "What kind of drink do you want?"

"Hmm." Blake lowered her book as she thought. The neutral expression broke as Ruby watched Blake's lips curl up into a small smile. "Surprise me."

Several minutes later and a few lien poorer, Ruby felt a bit of a skip in a step as climbed up the steps to the second story of the library, _Blake is going to love this, how could she not?_ Ruby had decided to get Blake the same thing she always got herself – _it does taste the best!_

"Here ya go!" Ruby gingerly handed Blake the drink, the black haired girl setting down her book – the first time that Ruby had seen her do it all day outside of getting a new one.

Favouring Ruby with a smile and a nod, Blake merely uttered, "thanks" before taking a sip.

_**Grk!**_

The reaction wasn't one that Ruby had been expecting as Blake slowly pulled away from the cup, having made an odd sound. _Maybe she didn't like it? Did the plan fail? _"I-I-I told them to add extra cream, syrup and chocolate…"

"Well, you did surprise me." Blake eyed the drink cautiously before taking a more tentative sip followed by a longer one. "I just wasn't expecting it."

Ruby could feel herself beaming. _She liked it!_ That still didn't address the real issue; why Blake was so moody all of the sudden. _Maybe I should just ask her? That always seems to work best… or maybe I shouldn't? What if I'm being too nosey and that's rude? That'd be bad. I could just be imagining it and Blake is fin-_

"Ruby?" Blake's quiet voice pulled the younger teen from her thoughts. "Is something wrong?"

"Why do you want to be alone?" Ruby was not the most subtle cookie in the cookie jar and had opted to go the least subtle way. "I… mean you mentioned you wanted to be alone… why?"

Blake sighed, before setting down her drink. It may have only of been a moment, but it felt like ages to Ruby before Blake finally spoke. "I suppose… it's how I cope."

"How you cope with what?"

Blake's mouth formed a straight line before she glanced up. Ruby, following the motion had it brought to her attention the little black bow on top of Blake's head twitching. "That."

"Oh."

"I… don't expect you to _completely_ understand..." Blake gripped her arms, hugging herself. "But… sometimes it's nice to have a little escapism in life, at least for me…" Blake held up the book she'd been reading. "In here, it doesn't matter to someone if I have these, or what I am."

Blake had gone from being moody to just… sad. Consequently, roughly half a second Ruby was hugging the girl. "Y'know we don't think of you like that, even Weiss doesn't think like that!"

Blake nodded as she hugged back. "I know… it's just..." Blake sighed loudly. "Sometimes it gets to me."

"But I-"

"It's just how it is." Blake pulled back from the embrace. "The fact that I'm even talking to someone about it is… different. I suppose you'd call it progress?" She gave a small shrug. "It's nice to have someone to read with me, even if it is in silence." Another tight smile graced her face. "Thanks, Ruby." There was real warmth in the voice.

As the two settled back down in their spots, reading in the library, Ruby had an epiphany.

_What if more of our friends knew… would that make it more comfortable for Blake?_

* * *

AU: Well this finally got done.

The only thing I really have to say on the story proper is that while it's a bit of a cliffhanger, it might not be the next chapter that addresses it. Don't know when I'll post the next Dilation except for a week from today.

I don't have too much to say this time, other than this particular chapter was inspired by some of Dani (Booksandweapons)'s art. Check it out sometime, it's really cute!

For those of you who don't know, _Acceptance's_ chapter 17 was moved to next Friday, if you want to know more, check out my profile – I have a blurb there about it.

Oh! And I started a new story called _Wrath_ – the Prologue was just released today! Check it out if you want, I'm particularly proud of it!


	49. The Sensational Sorcerer of Ozzy

Blake wanted to do something nice for Ruby.

She had a distinct recollection of the last time she had such noble intentions; they'd resulted in getting Ruby sick from the tuna cookies. _Although I did find that mod for Crescent Rose she liked so much… still can't believe it was a cup-holder._ Still, Blake was going to try again. _It's the least I could after she put up with me the other day…_

Blake shook her head, dispelling the gloomy thoughts_. Right, something nice for Ruby. I can do this. Where to start?_ Blake briefly considered the idea of asking for help from Yang or Weiss but discounted it. Weiss had given her some help before but honestly by this point Blake was spending more time with Ruby then her own partner was. Yang on the other hand…

I know she has the best of intentions but that conversation was still… odd. Blake could acknowledge that she had a growing crush on Ruby, she liked to think she was honest with herself after all, but having it in the open with Yang was odd. Not bad odd just… odd. And while Yang had agreed to keep her nose out of it, Blake couldn't help but feel like her partner would tease her about trying to get help. Not that it would prevent Blake from asking help from Yang if it came down to it, mind you, but it made Blake want to try and think of an alternative instead of asking the blond who was reading a comic book next to her.

All of this brought Blake to a simple question; _what does Ruby like? I've been her teammate and friend for a semester now, so I should be able to think of something!_ The Faunus set her book down as she thought about it.

_Well, she really likes cookies, especially chocolate chip ones._ Blake couldn't even count the number of times Ruby had decided that cookies were a perfectly adequate meal instead of actual food. As much as Blake loved to see Ruby happy, –and she was quite happy eating cookies- _perhaps it'd be best to think of something else?_

There was always another modification for Crescent Rose. The problem with that, was Blake didn't exactly know what Ruby wanted to upgrade her with. That was the problem with trying to get a gift like that to someone partnered to Weiss Schnee – if it was expensive, Ruby already had the part. The only other reason she wouldn't have it was because it was rare which raised even more problems for Blake, because then she'd have to find it.

_Think Blake, think!_ Her brow furrowed in concentration, _what's something we both enjoy_. _Ruby really enjoys weapons and food, but there has to be something el-_ Blake had an epiphany; _she really does like books too._

The average person wouldn't guess that the hyperactive teen was much of a reader, but that was one thing that Blake knew that they shared; a certain love of books. True, they tended to like different ones, Blake preferring ones with a darker glint to them as opposed to ones about heroes vanquishing villains that Ruby adored, but at least Blake knew more about books then high-caliber combat-scythes!

Only there was a wrench in Blake's train of thought; Ruby always seems content with the books they have at Beacon's library, as far as I know she doesn't have any books that she can't get a hold of.

The Faunus glanced towards the girl in question's sister, _maybe Yang would know?_ "Yang."

Blake didn't think a comic book could be slammed shut so face and not be in pieces. "What's up partner? I was totally studying!" Blake raised a singular incredulous eyebrow. "Okay I wasn't…" Yang sheepishly admitted as she shook her head. "Any who, what's up?"

Might as well cut straight to the chase. "Are there any books that Ruby wants?"

Now it was Yang's turn to raise an eyebrow, lilac eyes curiously peering at amber ones. "Oh? What brought this on?"

Blake shrugged her shoulders. "I just want to do something nice for Ruby is all." It sounded flimsy even to Blake but at the same time, she didn't want to explain why she got so moody and downright gloomy the past few days.

Yang, for her part, didn't question it or even really tease Blake. "Hmmm, let's see…" After a minute Yang scratched her forehead. "Well, honestly she wasn't all that much of a reader until recently. We used to read way back whe-" Lilac eyes widened as Yang snapped her fingers. "One of Ruby's favourites got chewed up by Zwei when we were house training him!" Tearing off a piece of paper and quickly scribbling a name down, she handed it to Blake. "Here ya go!"

Blake eyed the title approvingly. This… this was something she could do.

* * *

Given how well known the title was, it was interesting on a personal level to Blake the difficulty she encountered trying to find the book.

The book itself wasn't a particularly rare one, Blake had heard about it after all, but the fact that the book stores she normally went to didn't have it meant she had to go to the one store she could count on; Tukson's Book Trade.

While Blake had cut connections with many of the people she'd known in the White Fang, Tukson was pretty much the only one she didn't. Consequently, when she asked for his help in finding a copy, he'd been able to deliver.

Now was the moment of truth, the small book resting in a paper bag that Blake held as she slowly walked up to Ruby. The girl in question noticed her almost immediately, silver eyes happily focusing on her; "Hiya Blake! What's that you got?"

"Hello Ruby." Blake gave a slight nod before handing it to her. "For you."

Those silver eyes widened. "Aww, you didn't have to!" It took a moment for Ruby to fish the book out of the bag before gasping. "How'd you find it?! I've been searching for a copy ever since we got Zwei!"

Blake could only smile at the excited teen. "I have my ways. I take it you like it?"

The answer seemed to be self-evident given how Ruby was clutching it to her chest, starry eyed. "Yup!" Blake found herself being pulled into a quick hug. "Thank you~!" The hug ended yet Ruby grabbed Blake's hand. "It's really fun to read with silly voices!" The dash only lasted a few seconds before Ruby turned around sheepishly. "If you want to read it with m- eep!"

"I know a really comfortable chair this way."

* * *

AU: IT'S BEEN LIKE TWO AND A HALF WEEKS BUT I'M BACK FOR ALL YOUR LADYBUG NEEDS!

Sorry if this wasn't the chapter you guys wanted, I'll get to what I was hinting at soon… I just needed to do some random stuff to get back in the swing of Dilation. Also the name of the book is the chapter name, if you're curious! Oh, and I suppose Tukson survived in this timeline? I guess?

Real-life got, well, real so I've been busy with that as of late. However, a new chapter should be out this Tuesday and possibly another one on Friday! Expect me to return to a two or three chapters per week update average now that I have some free time!

I have to wonder if this chapter felt a bit weak, there was a distinct lack of Ladybug interactions X_X

Thanks for reading everyone and have a great day!


	50. Brooding II

"Hey Blake, can I ask you a question?"

Closing her book, amber eyes curiously peered at the caped redhead. "Sure, what is it?"

Ruby shifted in her chair, fingers laced together for a second before breaking apart, the younger teen fingers fiddling with a pencil. "Do you ever wonder what will happen in the future?"

Blake's brow furrowed at the question. "Sometimes, sure." _Actually that's not right; I rarely think about it. In all honesty,_ Blake's plans for the future were vague at best, something that worried her whenever she thought about it. "Yourself?"

"Other than being a huntress?" Blake nodded causing Ruby to shrug. "I don't know, it's kinda all I want to do." From everything that Blake knew about her, it made sense. After all, this is the girl that geeks out over hunter's weapons whenever she gets the chance.

Yet it didn't seem to be the end to it, especially considering that Ruby looked… agitated. It wasn't often when she looked like that. Worried, sure, but agitated not so much. "What's on your mind, Ruby?"

"…" Ruby continued to twiddle her fingers, entirely focused on the action for nearly a minute as amber eyes worriedly gazed at her. Finally silver eyes looked up at her, "After we graduate, what are you going to do?"

"Hmm." Blake tapped her fingers against her chin. "I want to…" The Faunus sighed, this is going to sound stupid to say out loud, but here goes nothing. "I want to make the Faunus be viewed as equals, make it so that we don't live in ghettos or are looked as different… I want to have equality."

"Oh." Ruby's mouth went wide before becoming a neutral line. "That sounds really hard to do."

"It will be." Blake's head gave a slight tilt. "Why do you ask?"

"…" Once more Blake was greeted with silence from the normally talkative girl. She was more than happy to wait for Ruby to speak up however; _if she'll give a reason eventually, if she doesn't want to talk about it, then why bring it up? _Even if she didn't want to answer, it wasn't like Blake was going to force her to, there was no reason to make Ruby feel uncomfortable. So she waited.

"I've always wanted to be a huntress." Ruby finally stated slowly after several minutes. "My parents were both hunters, Uncle Qrow is a huntsman."

Ruby sighed. "I guess I just always knew I was going to be one. It's just…" Ruby gave another drawn out sigh. "When we graduate, Weiss will probably be doing something with her family's company. Yang's always wanted to go on adventures by herself and you'll be probably not huntressing with me either." The smaller teen frowned. "I just always imagined that'd I'd have these awesome people to hunt with after we finished training… except we're probably going to go our own separate ways, aren't we?"

Blake had never thought of it like that; the reason she'd decided to become a huntress was as a stepping stone towards equality for the Faunus. By being a huntress, it'd afford Blake with certain amount of legitimacy that was unique to the being able to fight Grimm. When she'd signed up for Beacon Academy the thought of what was going to happen was very low on her priority list. Not that she wasn't worried about getting along with them, but post-graduation still seemed very VERY far away for Blake.

"It's not like we're going to abandon you Ruby." Blake gently laid a hand on the teen's arm. "We're still a team, no matter what. Yang is never going to abandon you, you two are sisters. And Weiss is you partner, she isn't going to forget you any time soon… she just…" Blake struggled to find the proper phrase, "…may not be able to go on missions very often is all."

"I guess so…" Ruby's downcast eyes told Blake that the teen was still unconvinced, the worry was still very clear in her posture, far more rigid and stiff then it normally was, i.e. very un-Ruby like. _I guess I can only give her the only answer for the person I know best: myself._

"I'm still going to be a huntress too." Blake's voice took on a softer tone. "Just because what I want to do isn't exactly word for word being a huntress, doesn't mean I won't be one." A small smile stretched the corners of her mouth upwards ever so slightly. "Why else would I be here?"

"…you're not wrong." Ruby muttered, looking up, a small smile of her own across her face. "I guess I was just worrying for nothing." Ruby let a sigh, and it looked to Blake like the tension was leaving her body with it. "Thanks Blake."

"It was no problem." Still, that left a question in Blake's head; why was Ruby worried about that all the sudden. "How come you are worried about it all? Graduation is years away still."

"Well, we just finished our first semester, the first big thing for training, y'know? Like we actually got closer to graduation now by a whole semester!" Ruby's hands swept out in a huge arc. "So it just got on mind about the future n'stuff."

"That makes sense, but I don't think you need to worry about it for a while Ruby." Blake couldn't help but raise a single eyebrow as a silly smile quirked across her lips. "Though if we don't back to studying we might not be graduating at all."

The sudden rustle of paper as rose petals floated down across their table forced Blake to suppress a chuckle at Ruby's now frantic studying.

* * *

AU: Honestly this was a surprise chapter that came out of the blue. I really wasn't expecting to write this, this morning. Oh well.

Here is the promised Ladybug! I may do a chapter on Friday if I have some time after doing a _Spoon Equality_ chapter! I feel like the concept is strong on this one, but the execution is weak… though I'm discovering I'm just generally feeling dissatisfied with my stuff as of late, oh well, it is what it is.

Two news items today;

First, I totally forgot to mention this last time, but _Dilation_ broke 150,000 views a little while ago, in fact I've just broken 155,000 views a few minutes ago haha.

Second, for those of you who read my other stuff, _Acceptance_ is up for fanfic of the year on the RWBY subreddit, when voting starts I'll have directions in all my updates for that week (next week) on how to vote if you feel so inclined :P

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


	51. Pixie

_What did I do to deserve this?_

It was the question that Blake found asking herself, as she ran as fast as she could after the trail of rose petals.

Someone, and that someone was most definitely had been Blake, had given Ruby a full bag of pixie sticks. Blake thought nothing of it until she saw Yang's horrified expression. It was at that point that she realized that maybe giving Ruby a bag of more or less pure sugar was a bad thing.

Naturally Blake had volunteered to keep an eye on the presumably sugar high Ruby. That would mean she'd have to find the girl first, which was a hard proposition when the person in question was someone who had a semblance of super speed.

_I suppose I volunteered for this, so I deserve it._ Blake sighed, that and the fact I gave her the bag. _She just seemed to be the kind of person to appreciate it more than myself, and it wasn't like I was going to let it go to waste. _Nora had literally thrown the bag at her before running away and yelling 'no take-backs'.

The trail of rose petals never seemed to end, crisscrossing throughout the hallways, as Blake followed the slowly fading petals.

_I wonder why Ruby's semblance makes rose petals. _

It wasn't something she'd even considered until she was following the huge heaps of the. _Semblances are indicative of what makes us unique, our personalities, so what makes Ruby have rose petals? Going by symbolism in some of the older religions of the world, it'd mean love or beauty… or martyrdom._

Blake cringed at the morbid thought. _Questions for another time, perhaps. Still, it's curious that she has rose petals, maybe I should ask her sometime?_ There was always the obvious answer; _her semblance could be a genetic one, especially considering with a name like Rose._

_Actually why is her name that? _

Blake's partner, Ruby's elder sister had a different last name, and their dad didn't have Rose as a last name either. _Maybe Ruby's mo-_

The trail of rose petals finally ended, leading Blake to what she'd been searching for.

Ruby was sticking halfway through a wall.

"Ruby?"

"Blake, is that you? I'm kinda stuck in a wall, can you pretty please help me? I've been here for like five hours, and I think I missed lunched which means I'll of missed cookies which would be really bad…" Ruby started to ramble at a speed that left Blake struggling to pick up even every third word.

After nearly five minutes of continuous word spewing, Blake realized she wasn't going to get a word in edgewise. "Ruby!" The ramble stopped. "I'll help you, only if you calm down."

"What are you talking about? I'm perfectly calm!" The excited chatter restarted, Blake pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm calm as could b-"

"You ran into a wall."

"It wasn't there before, I swear!"

Blake didn't even try to suppress a sigh. "How many of those pixie sticks did you have?"

"…"

"Ruby?"

"Maybe sorta kinda all of them?"

_Well that explains that._ Shaking her head, Blake pulled Ruby out of the wall, the process taking a few minutes. "Thanks Blake!" Ruby mumbled before darting off again…

…or would have, had Blake not clamped a hand on her shoulder be the rose petals could start to rain down. "Calm down Ruby, deep breaths."

The short teen gave a huff before trying to stay still for a few seconds. "I'm calm, see?" Blake raised an eyebrow. "Plus the sugar high is kinda wearing out." Ruby yawned loudly. "See?"

"Alright." Blake gave a slow nod before slowly releasing her grip. True to her word, Ruby didn't dart off. Yet Blake had more to say. Truth be told, she was more then a little worried about a repeat of what just happened; _hitting the wall like that can't be good for you, no matter your aura_. "Can you please be more careful next time? You could really get hurt next time."

"But I-"

"You literally ran into a wall."

"…pixie sticks are not to be trifled with." Was the only answer Ruby gave her after a good half a minute. "Okay, I'll try."

Blake gave a small smile. "Good, now you mentioned something about lunch?"

* * *

AU: Haha, this chapter is crap.

Literally crap.

**IMPORTANT NOTE**: _Acceptance_ is up for Fanfic of 2015 on the RWBY subreddit! If you have a reddit account, pleaseeeee go and vote for it on the subreddit! Thank you!

Back to other stuff now;

I need to start moving the plot forward eventually but today is not that day! Sorta an adaptation of Booksandweapons' art of Ruby and pixie sticks.

Life is getting less insane now, so expect quality and quantity of releases to go up soon!

_Acceptance_, chapter 18 was suppose today but due to technical issues and it needing a LOT of editing, I'm holding off. Sunday at the earliest, and next Friday by the latest!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!


	52. Parapraxis I

Ruby wanted to be a good team leader.

While she may not have been chosen for the role of her own volition, she'd do her best to live up to it all the same.

To be a good team leader one had to make sure all of the team were doing okay. While her own partner and sister were okay, Blake was… less then okay. The closest way to describe Blake had been moody. Ergo, she'd tried her darnedest to try and help Blake feel better.

The result of that had been the two of them sitting in the library, reading books for hours on end, which while fun, didn't seem to solve the problem really. On the other hand, it had given a Ruby an idea. _What if more of our friends knew about Blake's ears? She did say that hiding them got to her._

It was with the noblest of intentions that Ruby had decided to try and figure out what their friends' thoughts on Faunus were, and by friends she meant team JNPR …Ruby didn't exactly have the biggest social circle.

That raised another problem to Ruby; _how am I supposed to bring this up to them?_

At the present, Ruby was gaming with Jaune on his console in the JNPR dorm room. Pyrrha was studying at her desk, while Ren was helping Nora with her own homework, or at least was trying to. _I'm here, so I should do something, but…_

_If I ask them then I'd be really suspicious and I can't lie well, and they'll figure it out and I don't think Blake would like it if I told other people without her permission. But if I don't do anything, then nothing will change and Blake will still be gloomy every so often. What to do?_

"Man, that sci-fi game, the one with the laser swords, you lent me was great." Jaune mumbled as the two duked it out in Aura Caliber II. "I kinda want to play it again."

"Hehe, glad you liked it Jaune!" Oh well, I could always figure this out another time. "Aaaaand ring out!"

"Aww dang it!" Jaune slumped at the defeat. "I bet I could beat you in KotOR."

Ruby couldn't help rolling her eyes. "That isn't even a two player game."

"Yeah, but I beat that guy who was missing a jaw pretty easily, what was his name, Marik, right?" Ruby gave him a quizzical stare, causing him to wilt slightly. "Point is, I could totally win in that game."

"…now I kinda want to play it again." Ruby scratched her head. "Too bad the Dust-Station in my room is sorta… busted..." Ruby shook her head sheepishly. "Such a good story."

"I know right?" Jaune enthusiastically nodded his head. "I didn't see that reveal coming from a mile away, who knew he was actually Revan?"

"Yeah I know! Just like Blake being a Faunus!"

"Buh-what?"

Ruby's silver eyes widened as the gravity of what she'd just said kicked in. _Oh crap, oh dust, I said that out loud!_

Thoughts went screaming through her head at a million per second, as if her semblance had kicked in for her mind only. _What do I do? Do I play it cool, and pretend like I never said it?_ Ruby stealthy glanced at Jaune, trying to gauge his reaction. _He miiiight not take it seriously. Yeah, I could just play if off as a joke!_

Yet when Ruby went to open her mouth, a strangled noise came out instead of words, prompting worry from Jaune. "Hey, are you okay? You kinda don't sound very…okay…"

"I-I-I-I'm f-f-fi-i-ine." To Ruby, it felt like she had only two options now, _either tell the truth or just lie, and lying seems like I can't do it… I just hope Blake isn't angry with me. _"Um, please don't tell anyone!"

"Tell them what?" Jaune's head tilted. "That your fin-"

"I think Ruby means what she said before." Pyrrha's voice pipped up, emerald eyes glance between Ruby and Jaune, before settling on the caped teen. "About Blake."

Jaune blinked for a moment. "Huh. So Blake's a Faunus?"

Ruby's head hung in shame at her lack of secret keeping. "Yeah…" I reaaally hope that they take it well, I know Yang and Weiss did, but that's 'cause we're teammates.

"That's cool." Jaune shrugged his shoulders before turning back to the screen. "Wanna do a rematch, Ruby?"

Now it was Ruby's turn to stare and blink. "Wait, really? So you guys are cool with it?"

Jaune gave a frown in return. "Why wouldn't I be? I mean it's not like changes anything, she's still the same person we know right?" Craning her head around, Ruby could see Pyrrha and Ren nodding.

"Yup! She's the same quiet girl we all know… BUT!" Nora leaped up on to the desk. "IS THAT WHY HER BOW TWITCHES A LOT!?" Even Ruby barely caught everything that Nora said, as she started to launch into a billion and a half questions. "…and we can totally keep the secret! Right, Ren?" The quiet teen merely gave an affirmative nod.

Ruby couldn't help but give a weak smile. "Thanks you guys. Um, I don't think I was kinda supposed to tell you, so really try and keep it, a, uh, secret?" They all nodded.

_Well, that wasn't so hard! _

* * *

AU: Oh Ruby, you sweet summer child.

I posted last chapter and as I drove to work I felt downright ashamed. So I feel a bit better about this chapter. Honestly how to integrate the board game episode content. I've been hitting a dead end in my head since November for this, to be honest.

For those of you who are wondering, _Acceptance_ got second place on the RWBY subreddit for best fanfic of 2015! A very honourable spot considering first place went to _Remnant's Reclaimers_ which is something like several magnitudes above me. Kudos to Hysterical Clerical Hijinks!

I posted a thing on my profile for release schedules of stories. Short story even shorter, _Dilation_ will get another chapter either Friday or Saturday most likely.

Its weird having Pyrrha in a story, even as briefly as she was here and her not being the POV character. Or shipped with Ruby. My OTP... need more smol red and tol red doing the mushy stuff. Achhhhhh. Must suppress urge for this story.

Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great day!


	53. Parapraxis II

Ruby was really trying to focus.

She really was.

It didn't change that she was failing miserably at trying to do her homework, even with Weiss' help. Still did not change the fact that over the course of the last hour, she'd barely gone through the first page of a seven page packet.

"Ruby, focus." Ruby could feel the controlled frustration pouring out of Weiss' tone. "We just need to get you through this and then we'll be done until Thursday."

"I'm trying!" Ruby's head sadly sank against the table. "I just can't focus, yeah, that's it."

"And why can't you focus?" The response from Weiss was immediate, the answer from Ruby was not.

_Actually why can't I focus?_

It was a distinctly odd question to ask. Usually if Ruby was distracted it was because she found the lesson or the school work to be boring – Professor Port's classes were a frequent offender of that. Or even because she wanted to do something else, like play video games, or hang out with her friends. Yet that wasn't the case now.

In class, sure, Ruby's attention flitted around, but when she was doing homework, she had a tangible goal instead of just waiting out the clock. The moment she finished the homework, Ruby could do whatever she wanted, such as play video games or watch cute puppy videos on the dustnet.

_So why can't I concentrate now?_ It was puzzling to her; sure _I get stuck sometimes on homework, but this stuff is easy! I should have finished this like half an hour ag-_

**Smack**

Ruby was pulled out of her thoughts by a hand slapping her upside the head, not in the most gentle of ways but certainly not enough to leave a bruise. "Ow! What was tha-"

"Ruby Rose, what is wrong?" While it was certainly no question, closer to a demand if anything, Weiss' voice held something that took Ruby a few moments to place, concern.

"Um, I… uh." It was hard to focus with piercing light blue eyes staring at her. "I don't know?"

"You don't know?" A single white eyebrow rose.

"Y-y-yeah?"

"So you are telling me you can't focus on homework that is barely a step above busy work and you don't know?" Ruby tentatively nodded. "I see." Ruby felt too awkward to say anything after that, staring aimlessly at the packet while Weiss seemed content to stay silent.

"I thought you'd be trying to rush through it to be able to read with Blake afterwards." Weiss finally said after nearly a minute. The comment brought up two conflicting feelings in Ruby.

On the one hand, spending time with Blake was always fun, even if the Faunus girl was rather quiet. On the other hand Ruby couldn't help but feel a bit… tense at the thought of spending time with Blake. Ruby's brow furrowed, wait, why would I feel tense about that? It only took a moment for Ruby to figure out why; the conversation she had with team JNPR the previous day.

"I-I-I guess it's because I think I may have, sorta accidentally, told someone something I shouldn't of?" Ruby felt like burying her face in her hood as she sheepishly said it.

"Ruby, what did you say?" This time Ruby was sure there was more concern in Weiss' voice then anything.

"I might have, um, uh, totally accidentally told, um." Ruby looked around to make sure the people involved weren't around before leaning towards Weiss to whisper, "team JNPR about Blake."

Weiss blinked. "You did what?"

"I know, I know, I know! I just kinda blurted it out and I really didn't mean it, and now all I can think about is that I probably broke Blake's trust and what do I do?!"

"Back up, what did you tell them?"

"That Blake's a faunus."

"Ah. You're worried that Blake will take it in a less than stellar way when she finds out, I take it?" Ruby sadly nodded. "You could always just admit to it." Weiss simply stated.

"Buh-wha?"

"Admit to telling JNPR." Weiss was looking at Ruby as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Blake will value your honesty, it's not as if you were doing it out of malice."

It was true; Ruby had never seen Blake be anything other than reasonable with her, _to be fair, I've never screwed up like this before. Plus we are pretty close_, Blake had spent the semester break with Ruby after all, _it's not like we're complete strangers or anything._

"I suppose you're right." Ruby conceded after a minute of thought, giving a weak smile. "Thanks Weiss, you're the best partner."

"Naturally, now let's get back to the task at hand." Weiss gestured back to the forgotten packet lying in front of the team leader.

_I hope Blake takes it okay. _

* * *

AU: HAHAAHAHAHAHA I WROTE A CHAPTER FINALLY!

LOOK, A CHAPTER I DIDN'T THINK I WAS GOING TO WRITE TODAY HAS APPEARED, HUZZAH!

Okay, sorry for laughing like a maniac. Just… it's been hard to write _Dilation_ as of late, hence why only three chapters appeared last month. Finally! So expect some more chapters this month, I'm going to attempt at least one a week, if not two!

The plot is progressing, slowly but surely, so that's neato! I finally got around to a Weiss and Ruby chapter, yes, I know wrong ship, but its something I've been lacking on. We've had tons of Yang and Blake chapters comparatively speaking.

Now off to write the last bit of omakes for _Acceptance_ before I post it, so expect that to update in a little bit too!

Thanks for reading everyone and have a great day! :D


	54. Parapraxis III

_Why is it so hard to tell her?_

Ruby sighed as she slouched in her chair, sliding down so silver eyes were barely above the table's edge.

It'd been nearly a week since Ruby had talked with Weiss about her problem. The advice her partner had given was sound, yet Ruby hadn't worked up the courage to actually take it. _I should just tell her up front and that's it! That makes sense! But why is it so hard? _

Ruby had _tried_ to tell Blake about her little screw up. The problem was that whenever she so much as thought about telling her teammate, her voice just sort of… died. It was like words wouldn't come out as everything that might screw up in their friendship went through Ruby's head at light speed. Thoughts about Blake being angry, or hurt at the betrayal of trust rocketed through her mind, freezing Ruby in place.

"How am I even supposed to bring it up?" Ruby despondently muttered into her collar. "Sorry Blake for outing your closest secret that you trusted me with…" Worse yet, the longer that Ruby agonized over how to say it, the more hurt Blake would get that'd she waited this long to tell her. Just thinking like this was starting to depress Ruby.

_Well, maybe I could just never tell Blake?_

If nobody told her, perhaps Ruby's screw up would shift to the wayside. _Weiss isn't going to tell on me, I think? And Yang doesn't know at all!_ Team JNPR had promised to keep it secret, so it sounded like a sound plan to Ruby.

Except for the vast amounts of shame she was feeling from it. Or the fact that it was becoming very uncomfortable to so much as talk to her. Ruby was rapidly becoming a jittery mess around Blake, scared that some little thing she might do or say would let the Faunus know she had messed up. _I think it's been two days since we hung out, outside of classes n'stuff…_

Usually the two would spend a few hours just chatting every day outside the rest of their team, on the school grounds, the most popular spot was the library. Suddenly Ruby was finding excuses to not go to their little meet ups, homework was taking too long with Weiss, or she wasn't feeling good.

So other than eroding Ruby's friendship with Blake, the plan was working flawlessly. Except the point was to not lose that friendship. _Kinda failing on that point…_

"Maybe I should tell Blake?"

"Tell me what?" The sudden appearance of Blake's voice from behind caused Ruby to nearly jump out of her seat. "Are you okay?"

"Y-y-yeah, I'm fi-i-ine!" Anxiety started to set in with the realization that Ruby was alone with Blake in their dorm room. "100% ok-k-kay!"

A single eyebrow rose in clear disbelief while amber eyes focused in on Ruby as the teen fidgeted in her chair. "Ruby, you've been acting… strange."

"Strange? Pfft!" The younger girl weakly waved away the suggestion. "E-e-everything has been normal!"

Blake stared at Ruby, her eyes honed in on the girl.

And stared.

_Could she know something?_ Ruby was freaking out internally, rooted to the flimsy chair, cold sweat forming as her instincts were screaming at her to run. Run away from the problem and not look back. Run until the problem wasn't causing her hands to shake.

Ruby was half way to the door, a trail of rose petals following her before Blake spoke up. "Do you remember our promise, Ruby?"

The girl in question barely stopped herself from being flung out of the room in time to hear the question. Promise? "Uh…"

"I promised you that I wouldn't run away again." Blake simply stated after a moment. "I've spent more of my life running then I honestly should have, but I still made that promise because _you_ asked me to." Ruby felt the soft weight of Blake's hand on her shoulder as she stood rock still, listening to her teammate. "I know what it's like to run from problems. And as someone who knows what it's like to run away, I can tell you, it doesn't solve anything."

There was a long pause as Ruby debated between continuing to flee or to turn around at Blake before she continued. "I probably shouldn't be the one giving this sort of advice, given that I, well, that I do it." The Faunus sighed loudly as she let go of Ruby's shoulder. "Forget I said anything."

The team leader turned around finally, watching the retreating form of Blake as she went to sit down at her own desk. "…You're right." Ruby barely squeaked out the words, which nevertheless grabbed the teen's attention. "Blake, I, uh, have something to t-t-tell you."

Blake simply nodded, giving Ruby her undivided attention. Ruby, for her own part, shuffled lamely towards one of the beds before plopping down. Trying to open her mouth was hard, and Ruby couldn't even attempt to look at Blake, the younger teen's eyes drawn to her hands in her lap as they tightly held onto the hem of her sleeves. It felt like hours were going by as Ruby tried to will herself to speak up when it was probably only seconds. When she finally spoke, it wasn't the words Ruby meant to say at all: "You're gonna hate me."

"Why would you think that?" Ruby's eyes were involuntarily drawn towards the source, finding concerned amber eyes focused on her, and a slightly upturned mouth stitched across the Faunus' face – as if the notion was beyond the realms of possibility. "You're my closest friend, I don't think there is anything you can do to change that." Blake's voice sounded about as warm as Yang's did, Ruby couldn't help but feel a little better. "I'm all ears." _If I wasn't so freaked out that'd be funny since she has an extra set n'stuff._

"…I-I-I told-d-d te-e-eam JN-N-NPR that you're, you're a-a-a Faunus…" Ruby's eyes darted from Blake to her knees, as they touched the bottom of her chin, her arms wrapped around them. The young team leader's hands clenched as she expected some kind of disappointment. Tears were already welling up in her eyes-

"Is that it?" Blake's very confused voice penetrated into Ruby's head. "Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren and Nora know I'm a Faunus?" Ruby numbly nodded. "Okay."

"Okay…?" Tears were forgotten as Ruby stared, gob-smacked at the teen. "Y-y-you're okay with it?"

The Faunus merely nodded. "I was going to have to tell them sooner or later." Blake shrugged. "I suppose I won't have to worry about it anymore." It took Ruby a moment to realize that Blake was actually not angry. Or sad. In fact, she seemed to be taking it rather well. _I guess that this isn't so bad. _As Ruby tried to collect her thoughts, Blake continued. "Anything else?"

Ruby dumbly nodded, only for Blake to let out a huge sigh. "I was really worried that I had done something…"

"Done something?" Ruby parroted back. "OH!" It dawned on Ruby that avoiding Blake for a week could probably give the wrong impression. "No-no-no!" Tears were forgotten as Ruby hugged Blake tightly. "I really didn't mean to hurt you! Please forgive meee!"

It was almost instantaneous, Blake's arms wrapped around Ruby bringing her into a snug embrace. "I forgive you, promise to tell me next time? I didn't like losing my friend for a week."

"I promise!"

* * *

AU: Like an inexplicable Godzilla sequel/reboot/remake, I'm back.

I'm hoping that this was a good idea. As opposed to my normal route, this specific subplot had a lack of real drama. In fact, it was fairly drama-less in that Blake was more or less okay with it.

Honestly, I've felt like the quality of Dilation has fallen considerably in the past ten chapters and more than once in the past few weeks I've considered stopping the fic altogether. I'm hoping this chapter is back up to my old level of writing, though it's not quite as light hearted and funny. I really need to get back to that. Tell me what you guys and gals think, please!

As some of you avid Ladybug fans out there know, there is technically another chapter 54 out there. Or at least, there was. In fact I know about it because I had quite a number of PMs in under an hour begging me very specifically to not do what had been done in that chapter. The author in question wanted me to go a certain direction with Dilation that I was very uncomfortable with. While I'm glad he enjoys my story as much as he does, as you can see, I did not follow his suggestion.

Thank you all for reading, have a great day!


	55. Board Blake

Blake was feeling happy.

It was weird to even think that, all things considered. Weird that considering how sad she'd been just a few days ago, she was happy now.

For nearly two weeks Ruby had been acting… strange. She'd been a whole lot busier and Blake had barely seen her some days except in class. At first Blake had thought she'd said something wrong to Ruby, had in some way offended her. Blake had played back everything she'd said or done for a good week and came up empty. It wasn't until Ruby started to make excuses that Blake realized what was really happening.

Ruby was running away. Blake had spent a lot of her life running, she knew the signs to be sure, avoiding the problem, ignoring it or pretending it didn't exist. All traits that Ruby was exhibiting towards Blake.

For a few days, Blake had tried to give Ruby space to see if it helped. _Perhaps we've just been hanging out too much recently?_ When that didn't work, she opted for a more direct approach. That worked. That worked very well. In fact the direct approach was the reason Blake was so happy. Turned out that the reason Ruby was running was because she'd accidently told team JNPR about Blake's ears.

While Blake knew she might have appreciated it a bit more if Ruby had told her immediately or even if she got a chance to tell JNPR herself, she was just happy that Ruby was back to how she had been. That Blake had her friend back. _I suppose her telling JNPR saves me the trouble at least? Well th-_

"Yang Xiao Long prepare you're kingdom for battle!"

"Bring it on sis!" Blake's partner shouted, despite them being in the quiet confines of the library.

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Ruby enthusiastically slapped a card on the table. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!"

The resulting dice rolls spelled the imminent defeat for the younger sister. Over the sounds of Ruby despairing, it was now Weiss' turn, who, like Blake, had about as much a chance of understanding what was going on as Ruby did winning at this point. _I think?_

Luckily for Blake the instructions for the game were sitting untouched near her.

_It can't be that hard to learn, can it?_

* * *

The end was nigh, Atlas had fallen, Vacuo was being cut to shreds by the approaching armies and masterful tactician of Mistral, Ruby could do naught to stop the on slaughter.

While Vacuo's rather… dictatorial leader had done some odd maneuvers –Weiss literally attacked her own navy two turns ago- but now Vacuo had fallen, their army being destroyed by cunning trap that Mistral had sprung on them. The only hope left, laid in the inexperienced forces of Vale, the last free force left in Remnant to resist against the mighty power of Mistral. _Maybe Blake can avenge us!_ Ruby sullenly thought as she and Weiss sat out in defeat.

"Alright Blake, you're up!" The devious tactician smugly noted as she leaned back in her chair, certain in the outcome; victory. A victory that Ruby too, felt was inevitable, _Blake is only slightly better then Weiss, but that's not saying muc-_

"…" Her silence was making Ruby think that Blake might have been more on the scale of skill of Weiss and less of Yang.

Yang glanced at Ruby and Weiss before back at Blake, clearly taking the silence as a sign of confusion. "You're playing the kingdom of Vale, remember? Do you need… need…" Blake held up a card silently at Yang, causing the blonde to stop, her mouth forming a big 'O' of surprise. Surprise soon melted into a mischievous smirk. "You do know this means war?" _What card is she even holding up?_ Ruby couldn't make it out from across the table as Blake set it down before picking up another card.

"Good thing I prepared." This time making Yang's shoulders shag, the despair on the tactician's face clear from across the table as Weiss and Ruby looked at each other in wonder, the same question clearly etched into Weiss' face echoed on her own, _what is Blake doing?!_

"That's a good start Blakey hehe, buuuuuuuut you just activated my trap card!" The vicious smile on Yang's face made it clear that the despair had all been a ploy to lure in the last free kingdom of Remnant into conflict! "Fatal Nevermore! If I rol-"

"No, you just activated _my_ trap card." The biggest smirk that Ruby have ever seen grace Blake's lips as she laid down the card. "Fortuitous meteor."

Ruby's breath sucked in, that was one of the craziest cards in the game, most likely to rebound on you… but if it worked, the effects were great! "Ohoho, playing dangerous I see." A dangerous glint shined in lilac eyes as Yang was unfazed. "But if you roll a 10 or lower, the meteor will hit your kingdom and I will win!"

"Conversely if I roll an 11 or 12, the meteor will rebound your own trap onto you _and_ Mistral won't be able to draw anymore cards for four turns."

One could cut the tension with a knife as the pair of six sided dices bounced off the table before finally clattering to a stop.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" Yang's arms reached out towards the heavens as her pieces were flattened by the successful ploy. The treacherous tactician had fallen! While Yang's dramatic wails of lament for an easy victory, what grabbed Ruby's attention was Blake.

A small, but present goofy smile stretched across her lips, her amber eyes twinkling with mirth, her normally rigid posture relaxed. It was a far cry from how she'd been in the library a few weeks ago. Blake was genuinely happy. It was a happiness that made Ruby eternally grateful she'd come clean to Blake about telling JNPR.

_I just wish __**I**__ could be the one making her that happy._

* * *

AU: Someday Ruby, someday. Lucky me that I know what day that is! :P

Huzzah! This chapter finally posted! I've been trying to figure out how to cover the board game and the faunus reveal to JNPR since… November actually. That's partly why this slowed down so much. That and liiiiiiife.

Okay, so, status update on my stories; _Acceptance_'s chapter 19 was a complete flop. I mean the idea REALLY didn't pan out. To be fair, it was one that was done on a lark and its integration into the larger story was what caused the issue, so moving back to the old schedule of chapters means I'm starting anew for it… so expect it in about a month give or take? Probably on the one year anniversary of the story's start.

_Dilation_ will be getting more chapters seeing as I FINALLY GOT PAST THE PART I WAS STUCK ON SINCE THIS VOLUME BEGAN. I might even put out two more chapters between now and Saturday!

_Spoon Equality_ will just chug along as per usual.

Thank you for reading everyone and have a great day! :D

P.S. Did anyone get the chapter title reference? :P


	56. Crush V

_Why do I wanna be the one to make Blake happy?_

It was a question that was stuck in Ruby's head since the tabletop game the other day, the intense feeling of happiness mixed with something else, the emotions still vivid. Happiness, Ruby could understand, _who doesn't want to see their friends happy after all?_ But that other feeling… that was new.

The swell of joy at Blake's goofy smile, the small daydream wish that Ruby had been the reason… that was what made her wonder.

_It's not entirely new though. _

There were other instances of this feeling; it was hard for Ruby to put her finger on when she had first started to feel it around Blake. It was like a warmth enveloped her, it made her feel giddy. Any time spent with Blake was just more… fun.

Sure, Ruby could hang out with Weiss or Jaune and it'd be fun, but the experience didn't quite have the same _appeal_ to it. There was some kind of invisible force drawing Ruby to Blake and she couldn't comprehend it.

True, the two were very close friends, but it was more than that now. Friends didn't end up sleeping in a tangle of limbs together, admittedly on a non-regular basis. Just being friends didn't answer why Ruby felt drawn to Blake in a way she hadn't felt with anyone else. It didn't answer why whenever Yang teased her, Ruby felt her face turn redder then her cape.

Deep down, Ruby knew a reason why she'd felt this way, in fact she could admit to herself that might even have a bit of a tiny crush on Blake.

_Is that what this is? A crush? _

True, Yang had teased her about how close Blake and her were getting, but Ruby never even thought she had a crush on the black haired teen_. Blake and I just end up in a lot of weird situations is all, like whenever Gambol Shroud wraps around us or we can only find one bed…_

Just thinking of those instances made Ruby feel heat rising to her cheeks. _Am I blushing just from remembering that stuff?_ Sure, Ruby could wave away the fact that it was nice to cuddle with Blake, the taller teen just happened to be a perfect cuddle partner when the odd occasion occurred. Ruby could write that off as just being forced to do so by circumstances, if that was only the case.

_Then why do I keep wishing I could always cuddle with her? _

Ever since Yang had pointed out the penchant for Ruby and Blake to end up curled up and sleeping together, Ruby kept having random thoughts of it at night. At first she had thought nothing of it except that Yang had just been teasing her but now…

The thought of Blake holding her as they read together was something that made Ruby feel very, **very** happy.

_But the only people who do that are people that like-like each other and I don't… or do I? _

_I have a crush on Blake._ Ruby could finally admit it to herself. That led to a whole myriad of feelings: confusion, nervousness, fear and hopeful.

Confusion was the easiest to figure out why; _what do I do next? D-d-do I just ask her out?_

The prospect of that made Ruby… nervous.

Nervous that it'd change the cozy friendship they had, that change might in fact be bad for what they had. Their friendship had been an involved process to be sure; Blake was no longer the same person that Ruby had met the night before Initiation. Instead, she was less quiet –if only marginally- and was just… happier.

The fear was easy enough to identify as well; _how am I supposed to act around Blake now!?_ The quietly reading teen sitting next to her, Ruby's best friend was now her crush. That changed everything. To say fear was running thoughts through Ruby's mind at a mile a minute was an understatement. The fears of their friendship falling apart because of a stupid, **stupid** crush!

Through the plethora of feelings, there was one however that did make Ruby feel happy: hope. Hope that maybe, just maybe, Ruby could act on those happy thoughts she had, that Blake and her could get closer. That Ruby would no longer just have to fondly remember cuddling with Blake, but could do it in reality. That maybe Blake felt the same way about her – the thought of that made Ruby's stomach do a barrel roll. That if all the stars were aligned that she could be something more than just friends with Blake.

Yet fear returned; _what if Blake doesn't feel the same way? There was so many ways that it could go wrong that Ruby couldn't even count them all: What if she doesn't like me the same way? What if Blake is grossed out and never wants to talk to me again or quits or moves to another team? What if she doesn't even like girls?_

When the thoughts finally started to calm down, Ruby reached a decision on what she was going to do. There was something that Ruby wanted to know before doing anything else – be that acting on her feelings or ignoring them.

_Does Blake feel the same way about me?_

* * *

AU: I'm baaaaaack~

Sorry for taking bloody forever. I had this chapter somewhat done around Feburary 11th aaaaand then finale and my muse died and I pretty much didn't write for a week besides sad things and honestly almost decided to leave the fandom entirely.

So yeah. Same ol' same ol'.

On a happier note, Dilation broke 700 follows today and a week or so ago it broke 200,000 views. Thank you for all the support you peeps have given me, it means a lot! :D

Decided to finally get my butt in gear a few hours ago, and several rewrites later, we have this! THE PLOT IS ACTUALLY MOVING. Scary, no?

Over the past few months the rate at which chapters have come out as seriously declined and I'm sorry for that (I think I apologize for this every chapter now, but it doesn't change the fact that I AM sorry about it). There is a reason for it, and the big purple elephant in the room I've been trying to avoid.

I tend to use reviews as a way to gauge success. Lack of reviews are the surest way to discourage any author. Several chapters, several in a row actually, what I was getting was nowhere near what I had been getting. Which is partially what killed my drive and I feel like made my overall quality go down. It's sort of why I've only maybe a handful a month as opposed to usual weekly or more commonly twice a week updates I used to do.

I haven't exactly said this before because I don't want to seem like I'm a whining little bitch, but at the same time the wait between chapters keep getting longer and longer - this chapter and last was more than half a month, almost an entire month in fact. I just feel like you guys and gals should know WHY it takes me so long.

As always, thanks for reading and have a wonderful day! :D


	57. Crush VI

_Why are we doing this again?_

Blake knew better then to voice her question as Ruby reverently held out Crescent Rose to her.

If there was one thing that Blake knew about Crescent Rose, it was that the weapon meant the world to Ruby. Heck, the contraption had her own last name on it, and there was more than a few times that Blake could remember Ruby referring to it as her sweetheart.

It was for those reasons that Blake bit her tongue as she gently took a hold of the high-caliber sniper-scythe. On the other hand, while Blake was wondering why she was here, she did also feel quite honoured.

Ruby was letting her handle her sweetheart, after all.

True, Ruby had handled all of their teammates weapons at this point, - Blake had some rather interesting recollections of the times that Ruby had handled Gambol Shroud - as well as most of team JNPR's too… but no one had so much as touched Crescent Rose. No one.

There was nary a person that Blake had met that put so much time into their weapon as Ruby, which was why she did find herself questioning what exactly was going on, _why is does she suddenly wanting me to try it? _

Ruby finally picked up on Blake's not so hidden inquisitive stare stopped her rather energetic advice on how to use a high-caliber sniper-scythe, "y-you've let me h-hold Gambol Shroud… so this makes it even, r-right?"

Even though she accepted the explanation with a nod, Blake couldn't help but feel like there was some other motive that was a foot, if only from the glaring redness that was flaring up on Ruby's face all of a sudden. _This is Ruby, she doesn't scheme or plot… subtlety is mostly lost on her_. While it sounded like a rather unkind opinion of her friend, it was a very true observation… the only more unsubtle members of their friend group was Yang and Nora.

Blake liked to think she was an observant person – it came with being a former member of the White Fang - so when Ruby started to act differently, the Faunus noticed.

It was small things, simple gestures, like a flinch that was there whenever they happened to bump into each other, or a rather uncertain quality that had entered Ruby's tone whenever they were talking. Or the occasional lingering glances that Ruby gave her. Perhaps most importantly, was how Ruby's cheeks had a tendency to take on her namesake in colour far more often than in the past.

Awkward as Ruby may be sometimes, they added up to something that Blake was not all that certain of. _Was Yang right? Does Ruby really have a crush on me?_

Yang had no reason to lie to her partner, especially when it came to her sister, yet it'd been hard to swallow when she'd flat out told Blake that Ruby had a crush on her. And that Blake should act on it.

The thought both excited and terrified the black haired teen.

True, she had her own crush on her team leader for a few months now, but at the same time was growing rather… comfortable with just what they are; close friends. Or that was just the fear talking. After all, a change in status quo is alw-

"Blake?"

Ruby's silver eyes were closer to Blake's amber ones then the Faunus remembered them being. "Yes?"

"Um, are you going to fire her, or…?"

Blake blinked; right, firing at the targets at the end of the range. "Just a moment." Her hands got a better grip of the obscenely large weapon before leveling it down range and pulling the trigger.

Next thing that Blake could recall, she was on her back, the large and extremely dangerous weapon several feet away with Ruby crouched over her, freaking out.

"Blake are you okay? Blake? Blake?!" Ruby was rather roughly shaking the girl in question. "Oh no, she isn't saying anything, uh, there should be a first aid kit somewhere around here…" Before Ruby could take a step away, Blake pushed herself up.

"No need for that Ruby." The short girl's worried face melted into relief as Blake got to her feet. "I'm fine." With that out of the way, amber eyes found the forgotten sniper scythe. "I forgot about how much recoil Crescent Rose has."

"It's okay!" Rose petals fluttered in the air as Ruby zipped back to her. "M-maybe we shouldn't try that again?"

As much as Blake wanted to agree with that, there was at least one very good reason she was going to say no to it. Clearly this meant a lot to Ruby, and the fact that she was putting as much trust as she was in Blake by even suggesting that the black haired teen try her weapon meant that the Faunus felt obligated to at least try again.

_Plus_, Blake idly mused as Ruby excitedly started to give tips as she got a grip on Crescent Rose, _it's not like Ruby stopped the first time she tried Gambol Shroud._ This time the recoil of the sniper rifle didn't knock Blake over, though it did knock her into someone.

By the time Blake got her bearings and was making sure Ruby was fine, pulling the girl up from the ground and make sure she didn't have any bruises, another huge blush was spread across the younger teen's cheeks.

_Maybe she really does have a crush on me…_

* * *

AU: HEY LOOK IT TOOK ME LESS TIME THEN THREE WEEKS, YAY!

Honestly, the freaking THIRTY REVIEWS had me making a chapter by the next day but other projects (Acceptance and my MonCon entry for Happy Pyrrha Nikos story) took all my time this week!

ALSO HOLY CRAP THIRTY REVIEWS WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?! Honestly, as long as I get ten I'm pretty content, so thirty blew me out of the water!

YES PROGRESSION IS HAPPENING, YESSSSSSSSS!

Sorry, I'm excited. Took me two damn months to get Acceptance done and I'm posting it in a few scant hours from now for those of you who read it!

Thank you for reading and hopefully I'll see you for the final update of the day, to those who don't read it, have a great day! :D


	58. Crush VII

"You were right."

Lilac eyes blinked in surprise before adopting an air of confidence as the blonde puffed out her chest. "Of course I'm right! …What was I right about again?"

Blake couldn't help but roll her eyes at her partner's confused expression. "Ruby."

Confusion seemingly melted into a mixture of surprise and happiness. "Did you two…" Blake shook her head. "I was about to say that was fast, even for Ruby." The mirthful expression turned into a thoughtful one. "Alright, so what actually happened between you two?"

"Hm?" Blake's brow creased at Yang's. "Nothing I know of so far…?"

"Oh." Yang sheepishly scratched her head. "Then how come Ruby has been acting, well, er, like a love-struck puppy around you? Did you do something sneaky? I know you read a loooot about those ninj-"

Thankfully, Yang's words were muffled by a well-aimed pillow. "Love-struck puppy?" Blake continued when Yang stopped getting to know the thrown pillow intimately. The black haired girl raised one incredulous eyebrow. "I suppose that is how Ruby has been acting around me, as of late."

"AH-HA!" Yang's fingers snapping, coupled with a sudden volume shift, made Blake wish her bow blocked sounds a bit better. "I think I got it! You are finally getting a clue that Ruby is into you!" _Only took you three guesses, good job Yang_, Blake thought with more than a bit of sarcasm.

"…Yes." Blake fought down a rather fierce blush at the thought that Ruby might actually reciprocate some of the Faunus' feelings.

"Took you long enough." The words sounded a tad harsh, though the tone would indicate to any listener it was said in jest. "Well, as Ruby's big sister, you, Blake Belladonna, have my blessing to ask her out on a date, and not get punched in the face!"

The girl in question blinked for a beat. Then another. "While I'm honoured that I can ask Ruby out without my face getting more familiar with the business end of Ember Celica, that's not exactly what I want to talk about."

Yang gave a gesture that clearly meant to continue, yet the many words that filled Blake's vocabulary started to be more elusive for her to pull on. "I…how… how should I ask Ruby out?"

"You mean you don't have a plan?" The teasing tone that so often came to Yang was back, and Blake wasn't quite sure if that was how she wanted this to go, _I'd hope she'd take this more serious_. "Don't your Ninjas of lo-" Blake was already starting to grab a pillow to chuck at her partner as she haphazardly hung off the top bunk. "Okay, okay, I'll stop!"

"Thank you." Blake let the pillow softly plop down onto her bed before looking back at her partner. "I'm being serious, Yang."

"You really don't know, huh?" Yang thudded to the floor before joining Blake on the lower bunk. "It's not that hard, you just gotta ask Rubes out on a date, and then she says yes. Then you guys have fun."

Blake's mouth quirked downwards into a frown. "It's not that simple."

"Of course it is! Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well…" Blake's mind went to the first thing that she was trying to tackle. "Where would I even ask her out to?"

It had to be someplace special, a place that meant Ruby would have fun, but also nothing that'd pressure her into doing something extravagant to try and top it. _I don't want to pressure her at all, that'd stress her out, and this is supposed to be fun, not stressful – I'm stressed about it, and I wouldn't want her to feel this stresse- _

Blake nearly jumped off the bed when she felt a hand gently nudge her shoulder. "You look a bit lost in thoughts, Blakey… you maaaaay be over thinking this." The black haired girl gave a sad nod. "Look, just take Rubes to a bakery. She'll love it!"

That made sense to Blake – this was Ruby they were talking about, after all, she'd love to go to a bakery. Still, it had to be perfect. "Are you sure?"

"She is gonna be happy to spend time with you, regardless. Trust me, okay?" Clearly Blake didn't look like she was believing her partner enough. "So, what else are you worried about?"

"How should I ask her out?"

"Just do it when you two are alone in the library. You guys study together, like, all the time anyway."

"What if she says no?" That was the biggest thing Blake was worried about: outright rejection. That somehow both Yang and her had been misinterpreting all the signals, and that Ruby really didn't like her in that way.

However, Yang merely rolled her eyes. "I don't think Rubes could ever say no to you, Blakey."

"You promise?"

"Yes, Blake, I promise." The blonde got up from the bed and started to climb up to the top bunk. "You just need to do it, and Ruby will definitely say yes."

With that, Blake was left with just her thoughts until the other half of the team came back to the dorm.

_Yang hasn't led me astray yet…_

* * *

AU: Y'know, the pacing is now pretty much light speed compared to how it was going, isn't it?

Well, another ten reviews, another chapter :P I would have done it sooner but I'm just cruising through my MonCon submission for the RWBY subreddit at the moment… bloody thing is closing in on 7,000 words and I'm barely half done! D:

I'll try and post a Dilation chapter this weekend as well as Spoon Equality but no promises… I'm about 90% sure that my dog is going to be put down tomorrow so…yeah. That's a thing. Pyrrha and my dog in less then a month. Why.

Before anyone asks, no its not a sudden thing, she's been on her last legs for a good… I dunno, three years now? She was given a month to live and that was about seven years ago at this point so we really have known its coming for a while now.

Sorry to end on a downer note! DX

Thank you for reading and reviewing everyone! I hope you all have a great day! :D


	59. Crush VIII

With a soft sigh, Weiss shut her text book. "What's troubling you, Ruby?"

"Um, uh…" The girl in question nervously fidgeted with the hem of her sleeves. "Um…"

"You keep fidgeting – quite nosily, if I might add – and you keep staring at me." Weiss' expression softened. "I did promise I was going to be the best teammate ever, didn't I? So talk to me Ruby."

Weiss had hit the nail right on the head, something was definitely on Ruby's mind. In fact, that was the reason she had come to her partner in the first place. The problem was trying to actually figure out how to say it, I can't just blurt out I have a crush on Blake, what should I do?! "It's um… well, you see-"

"It's about Blake, isn't it?" Weiss rolled her eyes as Ruby started to sputter. "Or am I wrong?"

"Uh, no, i-it's about, um, homework that's due…" The piercing light blue eyes were not even giving the slightest hint of believing what Ruby was saying. "Yeah-okay-maybe!" Ruby pulled her hood over her head in a blur as her face reddened with embarrassment.

_How did she find out?! Did someone tell her? No, wait, I haven't told anyone yet, so then who could have told her?!_ "Did something happen between the two of you, or…?" Weiss gently prompted after a little while.

"No. Maybe? I dunno." Ruby shyly admitted. "I-I-I kinda, maybe, sorta, just a little… have-a-crush-on-her!" The redhead finally managed to spit out before pulling her hood more tightly over her head.

"…" The lack of any reaction was not something she'd been expecting from Weiss, Ruby tentatively pulling the hood off. "Not to be rude, but that's been pretty apparent for a while now, Ruby."

"R-r-really?" Silver eyes widened. "B-but I only realized it a few days ago…" Ruby stared sullenly at the floor. "How'd you know before me?"

"Ruby, you literally spend every moment with her, you two are as thick as thieves as the saying goes." A comforting hand rested on her arm. "It'd be odder if I didn't know notice."

"O-oh." The redhead lamely nodded, not knowing what else to say. "Um, so…"

"Yes?"

"W-what should I do?"

Weiss' brow furrowed. "About…?"

"Blake." Ruby's voice was almost a whisper it was so quiet.

The older teen blinked in momentary surprise. "Ask her out…?"

Silver eyes widened in panic. "What? No! What happens if she doesn't like me _like me_?! Or what if she doesn't like girls?! What if she just decides to not be friends with me anymore, and then she drops out the school and our team falls apart because I asked her out?!"

Weiss let out another small sigh. "I don't believe any of those things would happen if you asked her out. Worse case, she says no and that's it. She won't leave the team, Blake isn't quite so petty."

"But if she says no, it'd ruin our friendship!"

"I very much doubt that. Plus," Weiss waggled a finger in front of her, "you are only thinking of the bad outcome, she could always say yes."

_Dating Blake… _Ruby's mind now went into overdrive with the thoughts of being able to cuddle up against Blake, being wrapped in her arms as they slept... Suddenly, Ruby was rather aware of heat rising to her face as a blush that was a deeper crimson then her own cloak spread.

Ruby shook her head, dispelling the thoughts, or trying to, as the good outcome and the bad outcome started to fight for control.

"Or, you don't have to do anything."

"Buh-wha?"

"You don't _have_ to ask Blake out." Weiss replied flatly. "If you are uncomfortable, you could always just wait before making a decision like that… or she might ask you out instead?"

"Waaaaaait, why would she ask me out?" Ruby was very, _very_ confused at that notion. "Blake doesn't have a crush on me, right?"

By the barest of margins, the corners of Weiss' mouth twitched upwards into a very faint, but still visible smile. "Are you sure about that?"

"Does that mean?" A sudden welling of hope sprung up in the redhead. "Did Blake tell-"

"No one said anything to me." Ruby's hopeful grin started to abate. "But just call it a hunch."

With that, Weiss returned to studying, leaving her partner stuck in a myriad of thoughts.

* * *

AU: This chapter was probably shorter then is norm as of late, but here we go!

I don't feel like I did particularly good with Weiss, in fact I feel like her characterization was quite lame for what it could have been D:

I really need more practice with her!

ALSO THINGS ARE STILL HAPPENING, I PROMISE!

You guys and gals did post ten chapters a while back, in fact the end number was twice that, at twenty! The reason this chapter came out a week later was mostly due to the fact that I was working hard on a very long one-shot which brings me to the next thing…

**THE SUPER SECRET PROJECT, **_**REGRETS**_**!**

Basically, I know from the sheer number of messages and reviews I got that many people feel quite, er, dissatisfied with canon!Pyrrha's fate. Yeah. I actually just posted a MASSIVE one-shot yesterday that I am VERY certain many of you will enjoy. When I say massive, I mean more than 14,000 words massive, and literally me working every day for two weeks straight on it. Quite possibly the work I am the most proud of.

It is called _Regrets_ and it's my entry to this month's MonCon on the RWBY subreddit, the requirements were the character of _Pyrrha Nikos_ and the theme of _Happy endings_ :D

I really do think that it's my best work yet! :P

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone has a great day! :D


	60. Apex

Blake was more than a little nervous.

_Who wouldn't be? I'm about to ask out my best friend on a date! A romantic date!_

The black hair teen's hands were almost shaking from the nerves as she steeled herself. This was it, it was time, and she could do this. She could totally do this.

_What if she says no? _That little nagging thought popped up in the back of Blake's head before the Faunus snuffed it out. No, Ruby legitimately has a crush on me.

It was really obvious the more Blake looked back on it; the times that the little redhead had spent long hours reading with her, or trying to cheer up the older teen when she was down. It was more than just being her team leader. _Plus she did let me hold Crescent Rose, and that weapon means everything to her!_

Logically, Blake had no reason to be nervous. That was of little comfort to the part of her mind, however, that was currently freaking the hell out. The part that really, REALLY wanted to run away from her problems.

It was a part of her mind that she was actively trying to listen to less and less. Which was what brought her to the present – asking Ruby out on a date. To a bakery.

Blake had even called in a favour from Yang; to make sure that she and Weiss were not in their shared dorm room together… just leaving Ruby by herself. It'd be even more secluded then when Blake and Ruby were at the library. Perfect.

She'd gotten the text from Yang that the room was clear ten minutes ago… yet Blake was dawdling on her way to the dorm. Slowly, ever so slowly getting there.

_I just need to ask her! That's it!_ That isn't so hard. Determination filled amber eyes as Blake's paced picked up.

"…the white fang attacked another Schnee Dust Company train…"

The sounds of the news report coming from a half closed dorm room stopped Blake dead in her tracks, as she listened.

"…fifty-four crew members were killed…"

All thoughts of romances violently left Blake's mind as she started to berate herself.

_You are thinking of asking Ruby out when you could be doing something useful, something that could create an impact?!_ Blake blanched at the thoughts, _how could I forget?_

_How did I let myself get so side tracked by personal feelings when I could be making a difference out there?_

* * *

Ruby was very confused.

Yang kept staring at her every five seconds, and in a way that made Ruby feel like she wasn't in on a joke… a joke that even Weiss was even in, given the infrequent stares the white haired girl was giving her.

_Maybe they are going to pull a prank on me?_ That made some sense, after all, they'd been gone for nearly an hour, and Ruby _still_ couldn't figure out why they had left in the first place.

_Except, Weiss doesn't do pranks… so what else could it be?_

"Sooooo Ruby." Yang finally was the one to break the silence. "Anything interesting happen while we were gone?"

The silver eyed girl glanced back at her older sister. "Um, no?"

"Wait what?" Yang's voice sounded far more confused than Ruby felt, which only raised more questions. "Are you sure about that?"

Ruby gave Yang a quizzical look, turning around from her desk. "Yeah… I guess I got the read for Port's class done… so that's cool?"

Yang and Weiss exchanged glances with each other. "Blake didn't stop by…?"

"No." Ruby slowly shook her head. "She's been in the library the entire day, remember?"

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose while Yang face-palmed loudly, much to Ruby's growing confusion.

"Damn it Blake."

* * *

AU: …what were you expecting, exactly?

That'd go off without a hitch?

Ha. Hahahah. HAHAHahahAHAHAHahahahahaaaa…

Not gonna happen buddy.

This is based off canon, specifically we are up to the part where Blake is obsessively trying to figure out how to find the White Fang right its wrongs. If she isn't in that mindset then events won't happen, and I have many things planned :)

Ten reviews equal a new chapter, hence why this is getting put out in the early part of the week instead of a long wait like last time! …plus no major project taking up time, now it's time to get back to _Acceptance_.

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone has a great day! :D


	61. Team I

"Blake, can we talk? In private?"

The black haired girl sighed before getting up and following the blonde.

It'd taken more time then she'd care to admit, but Yang had finally tracked down her partner.

At first, she'd thought that Blake had gotten cold feet; _that made sense, we could always do it a different day_. However, it became abundantly clear that it was more than just cold feet.

Blake was nowhere to be found.

That wasn't completely out of character for Yang's quiet partner; Blake was generally a quiet person, definitely an introvert instead of an extrovert. But this? This was completely different.

It wasn't 'she's just quietly reading in a corner' or 'she's off getting more books from the library', no. Blake just didn't want to be found. Plain and simple. Or at least that's what Yang thought until she spied her on a terminal in the middle of the library.

Which was why the two of them were going to have a little 'chat'.

"What is it Yang?"

"What is it?" Yang echoed back. "What happened to the plan? I got the room empty and you didn't ask out Ruby."

Blake gave a half-hearted shrug, not even meeting Yang's eyes. "Things came up."

"What things? Things more important than asking out my sister?"

"Yes." The immediate answer took a few seconds to sink in, Yang's eyes narrowing.

"Okay, so spill it." Lilac eyes sought amber ones, still not getting a solid eye contact. "You've been crushing on Ruby for like, two months, so what's so important?"

No answer was forthcoming as Blake rubbed her arms. "Important things that matter more than some stupid crush."

"Such as…?"

"The White Fang."

One of Yang's eyebrows rose. "We stopped them, didn't we?"

"No we didn't!" That got a response finally, amber eyes locking on to lilac ones. "We stopped something at the docks, but so what?!"

"Well Penny really did most of th-"

"Torchwick still got away and we have no idea what they are doing!" The near snarl on Blake's face compressed to a thin line. "That's far more important than asking out som-"

"Okay." Yang's face scrunched up for a moment before straightening out before repeating herself. "Okay."

"Okay…?" Blake parroted back, disbelief that this was all her partner had to say was clearly written in her expression.

"Okay, buuuut you should let us help you."

"It's not your fight."

Yang frowned. "It became our fight when you decided it was your fight."

"Bu-"

"I'm not gonna let you go out on your own, I know Weiss isn't, and I definitely know Ruby won't let that go." Yang let a small grin grow across her face. "Let us help you, the White Fang is more then what just you can handle, right?"

"I can do it on my own!" With that, Blake turned around and started to stalk back towards the library. "It's something that I ne-"

"Blake, aren't we all on the same team?" The small voice from behind Yang nearly made the tall blonde jump, as Ruby walked by. "We're a team, Blake, which means we should do it together, right?"

"Ruby! When did you get here?" Yang's mind was already fast tracking back to what they'd been talking about before, _did Ruby overhear us talking about Blake's crush?_

Silver eyes gave her a curious look. "Like when you guys were talking about the White Fang?" The eyes turned from Yang to Blake. "We're a team, so let us help you. Please."

At the very least, it got Blake to stop her trek. "I'm… I'm our team leader, and it's my job to make sure that all of us are okay. That we act like a team, that we are, um, a team. So let us help you, please?"

Yang couldn't help but feel proud of her little sister's mini-speech, _I guess she has grown up from someone who just wanted to have normal knees! _Yang watched Blake turn around, and give Ruby one glance, the argument was over. Blake's shoulder slumped as her eyes were drawn to her feet.

"I suppose it'd be better than just going solo." Blake looked back at them. "Do you really think Weiss will go along with this?"

_Oh she will_, of that, Yang was certain of.

* * *

AU: I AM SO SORRY THAT IT TOOK SO LONG TO POST A CHAPTER!

I promised I would do it every ten reviews, and we're nearly five times that… Let me explain;

Basically I posted that chapter, and went 'Wow, I should do another one on Sunday!' And then I had an insane work schedule and I may have picked up a shift or two and didn't get to write for a few days. By the time I got a chance to, it was Wednesday. I figured I might as well wait until the Friday update since I HAD TO REWRITE MY OUTLINE BECAUSE THAT ALSO DISSAPPEARED. The cons of sometimes using physical writing to plan stuff is that it can be lost.

So that's why it's been a good week plus since I last updated. Yup.

Some other things, I think this was the first chapter I have from Yang's POV entirely.

As to the last chapter; I honestly wasn't trying to troll you guys. I more or less realized that I had to push the white fang bit NOW because I had put it off far too long or do it even later which would have been worse. Hence why what happened, happened.

Next chapter will be out relatively quicker, probably Tuesday? That's what its looking like to me at least!

_Acceptance_ update will be in a handful of hours!

Thank you for reading everyone, have a great day!


	62. Team II

"Penny, can I ask you a question?"

"Absolutely, what would you like to know about?"

Somehow, on the way to the CCT tower, Ruby and Weiss had ran into Penny. Naturally, Ruby had opted to talk to the ginger, having not seen her since the fiasco at the docks.

_She just disappeared without a trace!_ To be fair, Ruby had been more than a little preoccupied at the time with what had been going on with Blake …which wasn't far off from her current mindset.

Ever since the realization that Ruby had a crush on the older girl, it'd only been a short time later when Blake had become _very_ reclusive. So much so, that Ruby swore she never saw her teammate outside of class, or the occasional time she woke up in the middle of the night and walked by Blake's sleeping form. While correlation didn't necessarily equate causation, it was still enough to put doubts into her head.

Which was why Ruby wanted advice from someone else, someone who didn't know the situation, seeing as they were done catching up about what had happened after the docks. "You're a huntress-in-training, right?"

"Affirmative!" The redhead gave a huge nod and smile, but staring curiously at her "Aren't you as well, Ruby?"

"Yeah, I'm actually the leader of my team… you met them, remember?"

Bright green eyes blinked as recognition dawned. "Oh! You mean Yang, Blake, and Weiss? Didn't we see Weiss earlier? How are the other two doing?"

"Yup. Yang's doing fine, though Blake…"

"Is something wrong?" Penny seemingly teleported in front of Ruby, the silver eyed girl nearly running into her friend. "Did she run away again?"

"No, she's with Sun right now." Ruby huffed after a moment. "I think something is probably wrong… Maybe? Sorta? Kinda?"

Unblinking green eyes greeted Ruby as Penny listened with rapt attention. "I th-think I might be failing as a team leader… and a friend- eep!"

"Oh no, that's terrible!" Ruby found herself being lifted off the ground by a full half a foot before being set back down. "We should go help your friend."

"That's the thing… I don't know what to do."

"You don't know what to do?"

Ruby nodded sadly after Penny echoed back her statement. "She's been avoiding us, like a lot. I think it might be because of me…"

"Why would she avoid you? Blake is your friend, right?" While the question was innocent enough, the answer brought heat to Ruby's cheeks.

"Well…" Ruby's voice started to fail her_, no, you can say it out loud_! "…because I sorta-kinda-have a crush on her!" Ruby blurted out in a loud whisper before pulling her hood over her head.

"Why would that make Blake avoid you?" Penny curiously asked, completely ignoring the blushing mess that was Ruby.

"Because she could think it's weird."

"Have you been acting weird around her?"

Ruby pondered for a few moments. "I-I-I don't think so? I mean, I haven't really seen her a lot since I sorta realized I had one on her…"

"Maybe it's not you?" Penny helpfully supplied. "Statistically, if you like someone, they tend to like you back. Would they not be off-put by a behavioural change then?"

"I, uh… suppose not?" Ruby's head was trying to work out the meaning of her friend's words as Penny continued.

"Perhaps you should talk to her? I've been told that helps."

As obvious as it seemed, Ruby hadn't even considered that possibility yet, earning a light face-palm. "I'll try that as soon as I see Blake next, thanks Penny!"

"No problem, Ruby!" Penny flashed her a large smile as the two turned the corner, walking into a wide open city square with a large number of people gathered. Instantly Ruby's eyes lit up as she saw _why_ they were gathered. A weapons demonstration from Atlas

"Let's go check it out, Penny!"

* * *

AU: Second time I ever wrote Penny, to be completely honest. I need to use her more considering how much Ruby tends to be one of the main characters of my stories.

Ten reviews and new chapter, wooo!

Righto, progressing through canon is what's up. Yay! And I even stuck to my deadline, more yay!

Not a particularly long chapter, but eh, I'll take what I can get. It gave me a chance to use Penny and show that Ruby was starting to feel like she was the reason that Blake is being reclusive.

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a great day! :D


	63. Team III

"What is wrong with Blake?"

Weiss breached the topic that had been on her mind for the past few days.

When Ruby had said that they were going to go and follow up on some of the things that had happened last semester, like the events at the docks, Weiss could understand that. She could even perhaps applaud her partner's attempt to get their black haired teammate back to normalcy.

Yet instead of bringing Blake back, the Faunus was gone more than usual after the paladin fight, barely attending class, and consequently, her grades were starting to slip. Worse even, was the fact that her grades wasn't the only thing Blake was neglecting; the teen barely slept and ate now.

Which was why when Yang offered no more than a confused, "huh?" and an upraised eyebrow, Weiss felt herself getting a little frustrated.

"She's been quiet, anti-social and moody lately."

"Uh, have you met Blake?"

"More so then usual." Weiss didn't even try and resist and eye roll as she deadpanned. "Normally, I'd be asking her directly, but seeing as I haven't exactly seen her today, that's a little difficult now. Or what happened with her asking Ruby out?"

Yang's lips creased into a frown. That was the purple elephant in the room; both of them had been privy to Blake's attempt at a confession – though, the black haired teen probably didn't know that Weiss was in the know about it. _Not that was particularly hard to guess it, especially given how Ruby and Blake keep making googly eyes at each other_. When Yang had asked Weiss to leave the dorm room, it'd been pretty obvious what was going to happen... only for nothing to come of it, both to the blonde and her own confusion.

"I… got nothing." Yang mumbled after a minute and shrugged. "I've known stopping the White Fang was important to her…" - Weiss had a small understanding after the events of last semester – it was incredibly important to the black haired teen – "but this? This is taking over her life…"

Searching for the White Fang was starting to eat at Blake in a major way. Weiss knew the teen barely came back to their dorm for a little bit of sleep, mostly Blake was sequestered in the library, somewhere, searching frantically for little leads or tips. Blake had become elusive to her teammates. However, that wasn't the only person was starting to act _different_.

"It's not just affecting her, its affecting Ruby." True, Ruby and Weiss were not the best of friends sometimes, but they were close friends _and_ the white haired girl had promised to be the best teammate that her partner would ever have… and right now the redhead was starting to slip up. While Ruby may not be the best student, her grades were starting to slide, and she was always looking worried now.

Yang gave a long sigh. "You aren't wrong." Lilac eyes focused on Weiss in an inquisitive fashion. "So what do you think we should do about it?"

"Have you tried talking to Blake yet?" Weiss felt with some certainty that Blake would listen to her the least; _after all, I'm not her partner or even a close friend, plus, there is always the fact that she really doesn't like Schnees… _

The blonde sadly nodded. "I already tried that, but she wouldn't listen to me."

"What about Ruby?" If Weiss was being completely truthful, she thought her partner had a better chance of getting through to Blake then Yang at this point. "Blake would listen to her, wouldn't she?"

A faint smile graced Yang's lips. "That's what I'm starting to think. She really does like Rubes after all." The faint smile vanished, however. "That raises another problem, getting Ruby to talk to her again."

"Again?" Weiss' brow furrowed as she echoed the word. "You mean Ruby has already spoken with her?" _I would have thought the issue would be solved then and there._ Weiss could honestly not imagine Blake ignoring what Ruby said, even in her current state.

"Well, Blake did listen, but, since it only got worse since we fought the paladin… I think Ruby might be blaming herself."

"Then we should talk to Ruby." Weiss stared into lilac eyes steadily. "It's not her fault."

A smile returned to Yang.

* * *

AU: Things are still happening!

Ten reviews and I actually delivered on time! Wooo!

Okay, there was some confusion for when these are taking place, so let me try and clarify. Last chapter took place during episode 3 of volume 2, when Weiss and Ruby were heading to the CCT and Ruby got sidetracked by Penny.

As of this chapter, we are past the Paladin fight and are somewhere around episode 5 of volume 2. So progress is being made.

Next chapter should be… interesting.

Quick side note; for those who read Acceptance, chapter 20 is being rewritten from scratch at the moment! Expect the updated version to go live in the next week or so!

Thank you all for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	64. Team IV

_I'm never going to finish at this rate. _

Ruby caught herself staring at the page without reading the words on it for what must have been _at least_ the fifteenth time.

Shaking her head, Ruby turned to look over at her study partner a- an empty chair greeted her silver eyes. _Right, Blake isn't here_. After months of spending so much time in the library together, Ruby half expected her Faunus teammate to be sitting next to her like she always was.

True, Blake was still in the library somewhere, but she was nowhere near their usual spot. In fact, Ruby was almost certain Blake was avoiding her. The investigation into the White Fang had done the opposite of what Ruby had been hoping; instead of pulling Blake back into the team, she was further away than ever.

Ruby couldn't help but feel like it was all her fault. All. Her. Fault.

Despite Ruby's talk with Penny, there was still a little nagging bit of doubt in her mind that her stupid crush was causing Blake to distance herself, which was only exacerbated when Blake became even more elusive after their return.

Or the fact that as the team leader, it was her responsibility to rein her teammate in; yet the thought that she might be the reason that Blake was gone kept a paralyzing hold over her whenever Ruby tried to figure out how to solve it.

That fear was the biggest reason that kept Ruby from trying to find her wayward friend in earnest. From just trying to talk it out like Penny had suggested. It was the reason why Ruby was studying alone with a worried grimace across her face as she sat there, staring at the words on the paper wi-

"Ruby, do you have a minute?"

Silver eyes blinked before looking up – Yang and Weiss were standing in front of her. "Uh, sure, what's up guys?"

The yellow and white haired girls pulled up a chair to the study table, before Weiss spoke up. "We're worried about Blake."

Ruby felt her stomach drop as the worry increased_; Weiss knows I have a crush on Blake, what if they think the same thing, that' I'm the reason?_ While it wasn't perhaps the most logical of conclusions, it was the one that Ruby's mind latched onto. "O-oh… sorry."

"Sorry?" A single white eyebrow rose as Weiss echoed it back after a moment. "What are you sorry about?"

"Well, it's my fault…" Ruby's head hung low as the Yang and Weiss glanced at each other in slight confusion. "Y'know, that Blake doesn't hang out with us anymore."

"Why would you think that, Rubes?"

_Why? Why?!_ The reason had been plaguing Ruby for days now, _how could they act so oblivious to it?!_ "I'm too scared to act like a team leader I should be and get Blake back because I have a stupid crush on her!"

The moment the words left her mouth, Ruby realized the gravity of what she just said, _I just admitted it to Yang!_ Ruby's hands clapped shut around her mouth as her silver eyes stared in horror at her big sister.

Instead of the anger that for some reason Ruby felt Yang would have for admitting to be the reason her partner was avoiding their team, the blonde instead gave a small, reassuring smile. "I don't think that's the reason Rubes." The reassuring smile turned into a slightly smug one, however. "But that's good to know." An embarrassed blush lit up Ruby's cheeks.

"Neither of us think that's the case." Weiss' voice had a gentler tone to it then Ruby was accustomed to hearing. "We didn't come to blame you. Rather, the opposite."

"Huh?" This was definitely not what Ruby had been expecting.

"Blake listens to you far more then she would listen to either of us." Yang supplied after a moment. "I couldn't convince her to have us help her when it came to the White Fang, but you did."

"You… want me to talk to her?"

"Pretty much, yup. She needs to know that we're there for her, and not to keep trying to do this solo. Stopping the White Fang is important to Blake, but it's completely taking over her life at this point."

"…are you sure that I should do that? M-maybe you're wrong and she's really weirded out by me having a cru-"

"Ruby." Yang let out a groan. "She has one on you too."

"Buh-wha?"

"I guess the cat's out the bag, oops." Lilac eyes blinked in surprise as Yang awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.

_Blake likes me?_ True, Weiss had more or less hinted at the same thing, but Ruby knew she wasn't the best when it came to picking up those kinds of things. _Plus, it felt a lot more concrete now that someone said it out loud…_

Moreover, feelings aside, it meant one very important thing. Namely that Blake PROBABLY wasn't being weirded out by Ruby's crush on her. The redhead felt a small smile crease her lips at the thought. It's not my fault?

Yang, however, chose the moment to continue. "I'm not saying you should confess or anything right now, but Blake is going to listen to whatever you have to say."

Silver eyes locked onto light blue before going to lilac.

"I'll talk to Blake."

* * *

AU: Both characters finally are fully in the know. It feels like the endgame is upon us haha.

Sorry for only doing one chapter this week, but at least it came out a day earlier then I usually do? Though, to be honest, one the reasons this came out later then intended was because I was having trouble grasping about how to go about this. I could draw out the conversation far further but honestly, its pretty pointless to do that at this stage. This might not be the best possible way to do it, but it was the one I was least dissatisfied with in the end. So I'm sorry if the quality was lower then expected D:

It feels really weird for me to write at this point for _Dilation_ mostly because the stuff that is happening is now… is actually happening. Real progress is happening. I still don't know how I feel about this. Not in the dissatisfied sense but more "woah, the route is locked at this point. Finally."

For those that are curious, Yang saying how Blake felt was less accidental and more "Ruby needs to stop beating herself up over this."

_Acceptance_ chapter 20 rewrite is finished – plot wise – and just needs to be edited. Which means I can finally start working on Chapter 21.

Next chapter should be Tuesday for _Dilation_, and _Spoon Equality_ tomorrow!

Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day! :D


	65. Team V

"Can we talk, Blake?"

"Fine." Ruby had to admit she was a little annoyed when Blake only gave a small nod and a half-hearted response, not even looking up from the computer terminal, _it only took me two hours to find you…_

Ruby had spent the better part of that time agonizing over what exactly to say to her distant teammate, how to convince her to stop being so isolated. In the end, she'd decided to not do any complicated plan or the like, but go with the most direct approach. "What um, what's been going on with you? You… haven't been around the dorm much. Or classes… or our team."

"I've been busy trying to figure out how to stop Torchwick." Blake mumbled, her eyes still glued to the screen. "All else is secondary to that."

"That's, uh, not good…" Ruby muttered as her frown deepened.

Amber eyes peeled themselves from the monitor before focusing in on Ruby, heavy circles under her eyes. Although perhaps the word 'focus' was a misnomer considering how unfocused they were from lack of sleep or food, Blake squinting hard at Ruby. "Why?"

"Huh? What do you mean, 'why'?"

"What could be more important?" Blake was staring at Ruby with an intensity that was borderline hostile – something that the redhead had never felt before from her teammate... it scared her. "What could be more important than stopping Torchwick?"

"You." The words came without hesitation to Ruby's mouth as Blake's bow twitched. "You're barely sleeping… or eating… and you've pushed us all away." Ruby didn't even try and keep the hurt out of her voice as she hugged herself. "You're hurting yourself."

The amber eyes lost some of their intensity before looking down. "No, I haven't…"

"_Yes_. Yes you have." A hard edge had entered Ruby's voice, surprising not only Blake but herself. "You've been pushing all of us away." The smaller teen's voice adopted a tremble to her tone. "Why-"

"No I haven't!" Blake was no longer sitting, standing, and looming over Ruby – albeit with a very shaky wobble in her stance. "I haven't pushed any of you away, you just haven't decided to help me!"

"You're wrong. Yang tried." Ruby mumbled after a moment. "B-but you didn't listen to her. Or Weiss." Ruby's silver eyes focused on the ground as she fidgeted with the hem of her sleeves. "We tried to help you at first, but after we fought the Paladin you wouldn't let us try."

"…" Blake said nothing and when Ruby looked up, the tall teen had turned her back to her and was looking back at the screen. "It's not like its hurting Yang, or Weiss or you, why should you care?"

Ruby felt anger started to cloud her mind at the question. "Because I care about you!"

"If you did, then you'd let me keep working on this." Squinting amber eyes flicked back to her. "Do you have any idea how much this matters to me? How much more important it is than going to class, or getting sleep?"

"That doesn't change the fact that you're hurting yourself!" Ruby felt like she just kept repeating herself. "You don't sleep or eat anymore, and it's not just yourself that you're hurting…"

The ears underneath the bow twitched as Blake's head tilted. "Huh?"

"Yang can't talk to you anymore, she misses her partner… and Weiss, well, Weiss misses you whether you believe it or not… and I…" Tears started to well up in Ruby's eyes as silver stared into amber.

"I thought you hated me."

"…" Silence greeted Ruby again, although this time, it wasn't that Blake had nothing to say, as Ruby could work out the black-haired teen's mouth trying to form words.

Ruby gave her a sad smile. "I thought I was the reason you wouldn't let us help you. That I was a failure of a team leader."

"…That's not it…" Blake finally managed to get out, her voice choked full of emotion. "That's not how it is at all, Ruby… I don't hate you at all…"

"T-then how come you won't talk to your friends, _to me_, anymore?" Ruby moved closer to Blake until they were nearly nose to nose. "Do you remember your promise from last semester? That you wouldn't run away again." Ruby's sad smile drooped into an even sadder frown. "Then how come you are running away from your teammates, from your friends?"

Ruby knew her tone was no longer gentle, in fact it had become flat out accusatory, but it was the truth. _Blake promised me that she wouldn't run away again. She promised!_ "…I guess it's because I'm scared? Or maybe I just forget I have friends…" Blake's bow sagged in way that reminded Ruby of a sad cat. "But I can't stop-"

"We don't want you to stop." Ruby gave a small, genuine, smile as she put a comforting hand on Blake's arm. "We just want to help."

"…how?" Blake asked after a moment before wiping away something from her eyes - tears. "How can everyone help?"

"If we discuss it as a team, I'm sure we can figure out a way!"

"Okay, let's… let's give it a try."

* * *

AU: THEY FINALLY TALKED! STUFF IS HAPPENING!

Slowly we are getting through the drama!

Right-o, another ten reviews, another chapter! Sorry about the update not going up on Tuesday, stuff came up.

Considering the amount riding on the chapter, I had MapleLeafLink and Gorsouul look over and edit this before publishing, so there was someone (two actually) who was involved in the writing process.

One of the things I wanted to do was show that Blake's actions do actually hurt others, mostly Ruby in the context of the story, but in canon it's her whole team (as well as Ruby). So yeah. That was a thing.

For those who read Acceptance, I'm up to 2,000 words for chapter 21 at this point and will have the first draft done within a week!

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	66. Team VI

_I have to leave the library._

Blake's thoughts felt fuzzy as she struggled with some difficulty to keep her eyes open even as her emotions continued to stay in flux.

_I did promise Ruby I'd talk to the rest of the team._ Yet Blake continued to be firmly seated on the computer desk chair as she muddled over what to do.

Blake had asked Ruby for a few minutes to collect her thoughts before going back to her teammates. Ruby had gone on ahead, happy with the outcome of their discussion; leaving Blake alone with her thoughts.

From one perspective, the choice didn't seem that hard at all; all that Blake needed to do was to get up and go discuss what she'd found out with her team and hopefully assuage some of their worry, in particular their team leader. There was just one tiny, itty bitty little issue with that…

Blake had nothing to show for all her research. Literally nothing. No progress had been made, no hidden plans had been uncovered or some secret pattern to the White Fang's operations.

Absolutely nothing.

_I can't show up with nothing! There has to be something that I have, something, anything!_

All Blake _did_ have to show was a growing migraine, a very hungry stomach and a new appreciation for the application of keyboards as pillows.

Truth be told, Blake was miserable in more than one way. In her pursuit of a lead she'd let pretty much all of her standards of living slide – from basic hygiene to class work to socializing. And she had nothing to show for the dark circles under her amber eyes.

By all rights, it was time to throw in the towel, yet one thought kept her from following up on what she had told Ruby.

_How am I supposed to face them like this? "Sorry for abandoning the team for two weeks, unfortunately I just wasted everyone's time and made everyone worry needlessly with no results"? _

…_if I take any longer, I'm just going to aggravate the problem, aren't I?_ The thought of hurting Ruby or her teammates any further finally brought Blake to her unsteady feet.

_I've already hurt them enough, I guess I can just try and not make it worse?_

* * *

To say that Ruby felt relief as Blake ambled into the room was an understatement.

A sentiment that both Weiss and Yang echoed as the blonde wrapped her partner up in a big hug while Ruby's partner joined them – not quite hugging Blake, but with an affectionate pat on the shoulder.

It felt like the first time in a long while that she'd been able to see her entire team together once more, even if Blake looked like she was just about ready to fall over – note to self, _make sure Blake gets plenty of sleep tonight._

"I'm sorry." Amber eyes were downcast as Blake mumbled. "I-I probably should have tried to ask for help, or talked to you guys, but I haven't. I'm sorry."

The mumbled out apology that the black-haired teen gave after a few moments, while nice considering the amount of drama she'd caused, Ruby felt was unnecessary. _After all, if I'd been doing my part as the team leader, none of this would have happened._

"It's alright Blake, just let us help you next time, okay?" Yang provided words while Ruby's doubts prevented her from doing so. "So what's the plan of attack?"

Amber eyes slowly squinted at the blonde for a moment, as if trying to figure out what she was asking. "Huh?"

"Y'know, what did you find out from all of your research?" Curious lilac eyes stared back. "We're gonna help you, remember?"

"O-oh okay." Ruby could have sworn that she saw Blake's bow sag. "I..." Her hoarse voice trailed off, as her eyes became downcast.

Ruby, Yang and Weiss exchanged glances between themselves. _Does Blake not trust us enough to share? _That was Ruby's first thought. Except, if that had been the case, then she wouldn't have showed up in the first place.

Silver eyes widened as a possibility dawned on Ruby. _What if she didn't find anything of use?_ That would explain why Blake looked like she was feeling crummy in more ways than one.

"Well, we could always discuss this after you've gotten some sleep." Weiss had evidently come to the same conclusion, offering Blake an out of the situation.

"Yeah, as your team leader, I'm ordering you to get some rest!" Truth be told, Ruby didn't think she had a lick of authority in her voice when she said that, but on the other hand Blake didn't seem to notice as she gave a small nod.

Nor did she offer up much resistance as Ruby led her over to her bunk bed. "I'm sorry I'm such a burden." The defeated tone made Ruby feel sad. "I'm really sorr-"

"It's okay Blake! You'll feel better after some sleep-"

**GROWL**

Blake guilty held her stomach as peals of laughter erupted from Ruby's lips.

"Maybe food first?"

* * *

AU: Aaaaand sad kitty Blake saga comes to an end for the most part. Hoorah! We got through it without death threats! :P

I quite enjoy

Alright, there isn't going to be a new chapter from me until I do my big update with Acceptance either Friday or Saturday most likely! (and possibly a new story too!)

A special thanks for Gorsouul for looking over this chapter before I publish, it always helps when I have someone who can do that on short notice.

Sooooo, now that we got through that part of canon, everyone knows what comes next right? TIME FOR THE DANCE ARC, WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

…I think?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	67. Dance I

"I'm so glad you could be here!"

Ruby could not stop beaming at Blake as the two slowly walked towards the dance.

"I didn't realize that me being here made such a difference to you Ruby." One of Blake's eyebrows rose in amusement. "I've never been to one of these kinds of events before, to be honest."

"Whaaaaaa?!" Ruby backpedaled and looked in surprise up at her friend. "How could you not have been to a dance before?! Didn't they have them at the school you went to before Beacon?"

"…I didn't exactly attend a school before coming here." Blake deadpanned.

Ruby's brow furrowed in confusion. "How come? Didn't you have to attend a combat school like Signal or Sanctum before you got accepted into Beacon?"

Black hair swayed as Blake shook her head. "No, I took a practical exam that Professor Goodwitch oversaw."

"Then how did you learn how to use Gambol Shroud?" Similar to Crescent Rose, Gambol Shroud was a complex weapon that wasn't something that could easily be picked up and used; _I thought she learned how to use it in a combat school…?_

Once more, a singular eyebrow rose. "The White Fang."

"O-oh." It took Ruby a moment to remember where exactly Blake came from, that she'd been part of them before deciding to become a huntress. "So you've never been to school before for combat stuff?"

Blake gave a shrug. "Not before now. I learned what I needed to, to survive and that was it." Blake awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. "…if I had maybe I wouldn't have closed everyone out so much…" The teen quietly mumbled. "I guess there's more to being a huntress than just learning how to fight."

Before Ruby could respond the two walked through the entryway and into the ballroom. "Aww, you look beautiful!" Ruby felt the distinct urge to pull her hood over her head as Yang half-jumped up and down, well, even though her hood and cape was in her room and not on her. "And you aren't looking too bad yourself, Blakey!"

Taking a step towards Yang, Ruby had a realization that in that moment she was wearing heels and that the embarrassment had made her forget that little fact. Which was why she started to fall forwards, only to be caught in the nick of time by Blake. "Can we have a serious discussion about how Weiss fights in these?"

"I don't get how you fight in boots, but we don't have serious discussion about that, now do we?" Weiss retorted, walking towards them from behind Yang – who was trying her best to stifle her laughter and failing miserably. Rolling her eyes at the giggling blonde, Weiss turned towards Blake. "You are looking… better." It was sentiment that Ruby wholeheartedly agreed with; everyone has been a lot happier since Blake's been back, especially the black haired teen herself. _It's amazing what some food and sleep can do for you!_

"T-thanks." Blake forced out after a pause, before her amber eyes started to peer around the room. "I heard that you and Yang planned the whole dance from Ruby. You two did well."

"Naturally." The compliment elicited one of the rare smiles from Weiss as Yang gave a goofy thumbs up.

"Sooooo…" Three pairs of eyes focused on Ruby. "What do we do now?"

"Just have fun!" With that Weiss walked off while Yang started to usher more people through the door, forcing Ruby and Blake to make room from them by heading out to the floor.

A thought occurred to Ruby as the duo shifted through the crowd, a want that was almost entirely foreign to her. "Blake, do you know how to dance?" Ruby asked as the two meandered their way through the crowd. Blake gave a small shrug, a sign that Ruby took to meaning as yes. A small blush started to cover the redhead's cheeks as she took Blake's hand and led her deep into the massive throng of people.

It's hard to describe what dancing is; it's being in motion to the beat of music, it's enjoying yourself to a common flow that you share with someone. The saying 'losing yourself to the music' is common, yet it doesn't describe what it's actually like to dance.

Ruby would never say she was the kind of person to enjoy dancing, or even would want to dance with someone on her own initiative; the want to ask Blake out for a dance had surprised even herself. Yet she was glad for it. Glad that Blake hadn't rejected the offer and was going along with it. Glad that as time seemed to melt away, her perception of the world slowly tuned everyone out but the amber eyed teen in front of her.

Even when the fast beats of the music track changed into slow ones, Ruby was grateful as Blake slowly led her in a slow swaying dance. The speed of the music was the only thing that entered into Ruby's thoughts as the two happily spun slowly in a circle.

For once, Ruby wasn't even worried about hiding the bright blush spread across her face; just the simple happiness of finally spending time with Blake after so long of being unable to had erased that fear.

_I don't care about hiding whether or not I like Blake anymore_. It was with that apathetic thought that Ruby gently rested her head against Blake's shoulder, a single thought entered her mind.

_I never want this to stop. _

* * *

AU: HEY LOOK, CHARACTERS ARE HAPPY, WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!

Seriously, it's been a while since we've had a happy chapter in Dilation! Which is weird considering what this is supposed to be.

Okay, props to Gorsouul for editing this, I've been using him a lot as some measureable way for quality control for this story for a few chapters, and I'll endeavor to get his advice on it with subsequent chapters.

Any who, chapter 21 of Acceptance will be out in about an hour and a half!

Thank you all for reading and hopefully see some of you for the final update of the day! :D


	68. Dance II

"Mission accomplished."

Yang could hear the almost smug pride emanating from Weiss' voice as the two watched Blake and Ruby closely dance together.

"…do ya think either of them are finally going to make a move?" The blonde asked after a moment, earning a helpless shrug from Weiss. "I mean, they both know they like each other… what more do they need?"

"Perhaps they don't want to go into a relationship?" Icy blue eyes flickered to Yang for a moment before returning to the dancing duo. "Mutual attraction does not equal a relationship."

Yang couldn't stop a small laugh from erupting from her lips. "Those two keep making googly eyes at each other, pretty sure it's going to happen."

"If that's true, why hasn't it happened already?"

"I… uh…" Yang had no answer. "I… don't know?"

"Precisely."

"On the reverse, if they felt nothing, then they wouldn't be dancing together… so there is a possibility!"

Once more, Weiss shrugged her shoulders as a response. "Regardless, they at least seem to be happy, so why not just let them be? Not everyone gets to have someone that cares that way about them."

Yang's eyebrows arched in surprise as Weiss started to slowly walk away. "Woah princess, something on your mind?" What astounded Yang was the fact that Weiss let the princess jab go without comment. "Weiss?"

"…I had a date in mind. He said no." Weiss gave a sad little sigh before gesturing towards Ruby and Blake. "At least I can be happy for them."

_Ah. Neptune_. Yang was definitely not blind, she'd notice Weiss making her own form of googly eyes at the blue haired kid… and from the sad frown that was tugging ever so slightly at her friend's lips, it'd hit her hard.

"You don't have to have a date to enjoy a dance, Weiss." Yang felt the shorter teen's eyes focus on her. "I don't have a date, and I'm having a grand 'ol time!"

A singular white eyebrow rose in mild disbelief. "When aren't you having a 'grand 'ol time', as you put it?"

"Good ques- that's not the point." Yang shook her head, changing the subject. "Point is, just because some things don't work out, doesn't mean that everything fell apart."

"Well then… what would you suggest I do?"

"Maybe hang out with your friends?"

That earned an eye roll from Weiss. "Considering that two of them are dancing together and the other one is standing before-"

"Y'know, I'm trying to help." A smile started to form on Yang's lips – _if Weiss can still be snarky, she's not completely distraught at least!_ "You could always hang out with Nora and Ren? Or you could try Jau-"

A quick shake of the head from Weiss stopped Yang. "I think… I'll just stay here then."

The grin turned into a smirk. "I don't know… I don't think you can handle my awesome dance skills."

"Oh please, I bet Jaune could dance better then you." The smile was infectious, as Weiss started to sport a matching smirk. _Oh, it was on!_

"Well, I think-" A familiar black haired teen came into view… without her dancing partner. "Hey Blakey, what's up?"

"Could I talk to you… alone?"

Amber eyes met lilac and ice blue ones as understanding about what it was about dawned.

"I suppose, I could always see what Ren and Nora are up to." With that, Weiss slowly walked away, attempting to find the partners in the crowd.

Yang turned towards her partner. "Soooo… what's up?"

"…" Yang could see a growing blush spread across Blake's cheeks as amber eyes flickered at her. "…are you really okay with me asking Ruby out?"

"Oh." Yang blinked in surprise at the simple question. "Yeah, sure, knock yourself out, go ask Rubes!"

"Are you sur-"

"For the love of dust, yes I am!" Yang had to resist pinching the bridge of her nose as Blake fidgeted in front of her. "As your partner and friend, I say go for it, and as Rubes' big sister, I have no complaints… so go!"

Blake's fidgeting stopped for a moment as she pulled Yang into a hug. "Thanks, partner," she whispered before letting go of the bewildered blonde and going off to find Ruby.

As the minutes ticked on, a familiar face in the crowd of students emerged – albeit, not the one that Yang was hoping for.

"So what was _that_ about?" Weiss asked, finding a spot next to the smirking blonde.

"It means I was right."

"About…?"

"Blake and Ruby."

"Oh. _Oh_."

"Yup~! Now we just let nature take its course and…. And… you're back awfully quick?"

Blake sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, as Yang could have sworn that her bow sagged slightly. "I…um. I can't find Ruby."

Yang face palmed.

"Damn it Ruby."

* * *

AU: I'm going to be honest… I didn't think I'd get a chapter out today. This is going to get a bit long, but necessary, so sorry for the ramble ahead of time.

Life is going to be stupid levels of busy for me for the next seven weeks. I'll try and keep up weekly updates… but that's not a promise. There may be some weeks where there is only a _Spoon Equality_ updates and no _Dilation_. Or neither. I haven't forgotten about them, I'll just be busy in real life.

For _Acceptance_, I'll try and keep to my monthly update schedule, but it may turn into the next update being July 1st or even later.

Yeah, life just got THAT busy for me.

I'll have an update of what's up on the next _Spoon Equality_ chapter come Saturday, but for the moment, I'm sorry to break all the weekly updates in the future… possibly.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	69. Finally I

"That was a risky move."

Ruby's shoulders slumped as her partner spoke.

"No, I think you handled it well."

A comforting weight came to rest on Ruby's shoulder as her sister took a step towards her. "I'm sure everything will be alright, Ruby."

Ruby's frown lessened as Blake and Yang's judgment came. "I hope so."

The comforting hand left as Yang let out a deep sigh. "Well, I think I need a snack before bed, wanna come with, Weiss?"

"What, why would I…" The curiosity in Weiss' voice was mirrored by Ruby's thoughts. "Oh, why yes, I think I'll join you." Curiosity turned into incredulity as Weiss and Yang left the room – the blonde giving Blake a pat on the back - leaving the two alone.

"Well that's… odd?" Ruby shrugged her shoulders before turning to Blake_, she's probably sad that the dance got interrupted._ "I'm sorry if I ruined the dance, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay." Blake stated simply. "I still had fun, but this is far more important than dancing… you did the right thing." The black-haired teen let out a long sigh, much to Ruby's confusion. "Can I talk with you?"

Ruby scratched her head. "I mean, aren't we already talking?" A faint smile stretched across Blake's lips for a moment before an almost nervous expression crossed it. _Wait what? When is Blake EVER nervous?_

"You're not wrong, but it's a bit of a different thing." Blake patted at the spot next to her on her bed, which Ruby obediently followed and took a seat.

"So, um, what do you want to talk about?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Uh, Blake?" Ruby asked after an uncomfortable silence. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Sorry, it's just difficult to put into words." Black hair swayed as the older teen shook her head. Amber eyes flickered towards silver ones. "How do you feel about us?"

"Um, w-what?" To Ruby, it felt like a gear in her brain had just gotten stuck and was struggling in vain to continue turning. "I-I guess, we're, um, good friends?" Blake nodded encouragingly. "You're my best friend?"

"…you're the closest I've ever been to a human, no, to anyone in a very long time." Blake's voice had become increasingly quiet, Meanwhile Ruby felt a swell of a mixture of pride and joy in her chest or something else she couldn't quite place her finger on knowing that Blake valued her so much. "I guess, what I'm trying to say is that…"

A good half a minute passed in silence before Ruby realized that Blake wasn't going to continue. "Um, you don't have to force yourself if its making you stress?" Ruby offered. "We're best friends, heck, you're the closest friend I have outside of Yang. I, uh, promise I won't be angry or anything…"

"That's the thing, Ruby, we're friends but I don't think that's quite right anymore." Fear shot through Ruby – _does Blake not want to be friends anymore? Were Weiss and Yang wrong? Did asking her for a dance freak her out?!_ The horror was apparently clear on Ruby's face given how Blake immediately started to backpedal. "Not like that! I want to know if… you want to be more than friends…"

"More than friends?" Ruby parroted back. When amber eyes almost bashfully looked away, it clicked. A relationship. "Oh. O-oh." A bright red blush spread across Ruby's cheeks. "Y-y-you mean l-like a relationship?"

Blake shifted in her seat before slowly, ever so slowly, dipped her head down in a shaky nod. "I've been holding it in for a while now, I guess I'm afraid?" The teen shook her head. "You're my best friend and I really don't want to screw it up, but now I said it, and even though Yang said you have a crush on me, I still don't know how you really feel."

Ruby mentally filed away the Yang part, _I could have sworn that Yang said she wasn't going to say anything to Blake._ "Blake, I-"

"-And now that I said it, our friendship is going to change and-" The normally quiet Blake was nervously rambling.

"Blake."

"-and I didn't want to make you uncomfortable but I said it-"

"Blake!"

Fearful amber eyes shyly met silver ones. "Y-yes?"

"Yes." Ruby simply stated with a huge smile. The choice had been a simple one for Ruby considering her own crush on the teen before her.

"Huh?" It took a moment before a dopey smile was mirrored on Blake's face. "R-really?"

"Yup~!" Ruby was more than a little happy at seeing the joyous look on Blake's face. "I like you-like you… Yang wasn't pulling your leg for once."

Blake's mouth opened, yet no words came out, her lips flapping like a fish out of water. Instead she settled for enveloping Ruby in a tight embrace. One that Ruby was happy to all but melt into, no longer having to disguise how much she enjoyed contact with her friend.

_Wait no, Blake's my girlfriend now._ That happy thought made Ruby snuggle deeper into Blake's arms, the taller teen's chin resting on the top of the shorter one's head.

_Blake is my girlfriend. _

* * *

AU: Toot, toot, the ship has left port :D

I wasn't even joking with the chapter name this time :P

This is suppose to take place in early episode 8 of Volume 2, the first three lines of dialogue being directly from there.

Finally, sixty nine chapters in, 67,000 words (roughly) and the ship sails. Better yet, I didn't even have to go to one hundred chapters like many thought I was going to do haha.

Honestly, I didn't think I was going to get it out on time and I'd have to push it back even further, happy surprises all around I suppose?

Anywho, there ya go! The first story I have where the ship actually became a thing… well, I guess _Regrets_ might count? Although, that was more of a one-shot if anything.

Next update: Sometime next weekend for _Spoon Equality_. _Dilation_ is more up in the air since I don't know my schedule for next week, but most likely precisely a week from today. That's my guess at least.

Thank you all for reading and have a wonderful day! :D


	70. Finally II

Blake was truly happy.

The rest of the world didn't matter to Blake as the comfortable weight of Ruby was the only thing she could focus on.

Their hands were intertwined for all to see, no bow covering Blake's ears as Ruby leaned into the crook of the taller teen's neck, only further drawing the Faunus' focus to her girlfriend. Blake didn't even care that she was openly humming – no, that was wrong, purring in happiness.

"Blake?" Ruby may have been quiet as a mouse, but Blake could hear the muffled whisper as if it'd been yelled… an impressive feat considering how fast her heart was beating. "Can… can I ask you something?"

Blake merely nodded, not wanting to shift more then she had to. "Can I kiss you?" The Faunus' fight or flight instincts kicked in at the question… only to be subdued immediately by large, hopeful silver eyes that bore right into Blake's soul.

"S-sure." Those eyes that she so adored had made the choice for her. _There's no way I could say no to her- eep!_ Ruby had gone from cuddling Blake's side to hopping over her, a leg on either side of the black-haired teen's. Blake's cheeks burned crimson as her small girlfriend straddled her.

As Ruby's face inched closer and closer, Blake's thoughts sped up to a thousand miles per hour as her first kiss with her beloved became imminent.

A flock of butterflies suddenly felt like they were in Blake's stomach as her eyes closed.

Blake could feel Ruby's nervous breath before closing the gap, soft lips… lips…

Suddenly Blake was no longer in the forest, about to kiss Ruby, but in her bed. The happy purr turned into a growl before settling on a very sad sigh, as an equally disappointed frown crossed Blake's lips. They were such good dreams…

It was odd when Blake didn't have a bad dream during the night, much less two happy ones. _Then again, they were both about Ruby, so what else could they be? _The first had been a tense, but joyous one; Ruby had said yes, and they were officially dating. The second one was a tad more… risqué. Blake would have blushed at the memory of Ruby straddling her had she not been so sad.

Amber eyes flickered towards the strains of sunlight breaking through gaps in the curtain_. Might as well start to get up_. Pushing herself off the bed, Blake met resistance.

There was a pair of arms hooked around her. Following the arms, Blake found who they were attached to, a distinctive teen with red-tinged hair_. Well, at least I know why my dreams were so happy._ Blake let out a small sigh. _How'd we get tangled up this time?_ Searching her memory, Blake kept coming back to her first dream – _that can't be it, that's a dream_.

Her movement had been enough to cause silver eyes to slowly crack open. Ever so slowly Ruby pulled herself closer to Blake before noticing the amber eyes tracking her. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

_Eh, screw it, might as well enjoy it_. Blake resigned herself to at least enjoy the cuddles before someone started freaking out, basking in Ruby's warmth. "Morning, how'd you sleep?" Blake mumbled back.

"Like a log." A huge smile crossed Ruby's face. "How about you?"

"Fairly well. I had some good dreams."

"Ooo, what'd you dream about?" Excited silver eyes stared at embarrassed amber ones.

"I… uh…" Blake most certainly wasn't feeling comfortable admitting what either of them were to Ruby. "I… can't remember."

"Aww." Ruby's pout almost made Blake crack and fess up the dreams' contents. Almost. "That sucks."

"Yeah." Blake's curiosity was starting to override her want to leave the purple elephant hidden. An old saying came back to Blake about curiosity and cats, one that she promptly ignored. "Ruby… how'd we end up here?"

"We… got tired?" Ruby's head tilted slightly in confusion, her tone mirroring it.

"In my bed… with you?"

Inquisitive silver eyes suddenly widened in horror. "O-oh! Was I not supposed to do that?! I-I didn't mean to mess up, it was an honest mistake!"

Blake watched with warring amounts of concern and confusion as Ruby rambled. "I didn't mean to go too fast, but I didn't think you mind since we started being a couple-"

"Wait." Blake's arm clamped down on Ruby's arm, halting her rapid speech. "So I actually asked you out? That wasn't a dream?!"

Ruby nodded as Blake's lips inched up a grin. "I really should have asked because I just assumed, and you know what they say about assuming-eep!"

Ruby stopped mid-sentence as Blake yanked her back into an embrace. "It's fine." Amber eyes suddenly widened. "Wait… that was last night right? When I asked you?" When Ruby gave a quick nod, Blake hummed in thought. _So that kiss really was just a dream then._

Yet as Ruby calmed and Blake cuddled her newly acquired-girlfriend, a very happy thought popped into her head. _I can do this every day… I can cuddle Ruby or hug her whenever I want. _

The fact that Blake could show affection towards Ruby with no restrictions was the happiest concept she could even think of.

Blake was truly happy.

* * *

"So explain to me, why precisely we are opening the package that your father, who let me remind you, addressed for both you and Ruby without Ruby?"

Yang didn't seem deterred in the slightest at the icy blue stare from Weiss. "Well you see… I have a good idea what's in the package, and as much as I'm gonna tease those two, I'm not going to be the one who ruins their little…" Lilac eyes unfocused for a moment, trying to find the proper word, "…_moment_. Plus, I think you'll like it far more this way~!"

Ice blue eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that?" Instead of answering Weiss, like any proper manners dictated, Yang winked at her before unscrewing the lid of the package.

A corgi fell out.

As a confused Weiss stared at the panting dog, Yang finally responded. "Dad said that he wanted me and Rubes to look after Zwei while he's off the island aaaand that it might be best to slowly tell Blake about it…"

"Are you telling me that this mangy, drooling mutt is…" The corgi's fluffy head pivoted towards Weiss, small eyes staring adoringly up at her. "…is going to live with us forever and ever? Oh yes he is, oh yes he is!"

Icy blue eyes melted as the dog licked her hand.

* * *

AU: Yang is a nice big sister. She isn't going to ruin their moment.

Someone said something about it all being a dream in the reviews, so this happened. Yup.

Two quick things with the last chapter. Publishing it on chapter 69 was actually completely accidental. It was suppose to be chapter 70 in my small outline, but a chapter got cut... so, yeah. That happened. The other thing is a clarification bit. The reason that Ruby was gone in the middle of the dance was because of Cinder's infiltration of the communication tower. There was some confusion on that point.

I don't have much to say today, other than "hey look, I got this out on time, huzzah!" Chapter 71 of _Dilation_ should either be Friday or Saturday when I do a combined _Spoon Equality_, _Dilation_ and _Acceptance_ update… and maybe _Wrath_ if I can get my shit together fast enough?

Thank you all for reading and I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	71. Finally III

"Soooo, you two lovebirds decent?"

A familiar teasing tone trilled from behind the dorm room door. A teasing tone that could only belong to Blake's partner.

While Blake was really too content to care what Yang thought at the moment, she did notice the fact that Ruby unceremoniously jumped out of bed… or would have, had the Faunus still not been cuddling with her. "Ruby?"

Mortified silver eyes stared back, bringing Blake's idle content feelings to an end. "I just realize t-that Yang is never going to stop teasing us about, um, well… y'know." Ruby's checks became a very cute shade of red. "…'cause we're dating now…"

"We haven't done anything other than cuddle, besides, it can't be all that bad, right?" Blake glanced over to the door. "You can come in, Yang."

Honestly, Blake didn't exactly know what she was going to expect from her partner as the blonde strolled into the room, the biggest shit eating grin across her face before plopping down on Weiss' bed, _I didn't even know that someone could smile so wide. _"So, you kids havin' fun?~"

"Quite." Blake simply stated, before looking at her cocooned cuddle-buddy. Ruby very slowly nodded, only her eyes and hair were visible over the sheets – not that Blake cared considering her arms were wrapped around her stomach.

"Good! Took you two long enough." Lilac eyes stared unflinchingly into amber, causing Blake to guiltily look away. Blake knew perfectly well what Yang was referencing… Ruby did not however, taking it to mean a very different thing.

"Yang!"

"Uh, yes Rubes?"

"You can't tease us!"

"I… huh?"

Long blonde hair swayed as Yang's head tilted in honest confusion. "Say that again, Rubes?"

"You can't tease me or Blake about us dating." A rather defiant tone came from the small warm body pressed up against Blake, surprising her.

Yang's smile drooped slightly, her tone losing some of its singsong edge. _She almost seems disappointed?_ "Why would I tease yo-"

"Nu-uh, you always tease me! As your team leader, I'm ordering you not to tease us." _Can Ruby even do that?_ Sure the position of team leader meant a lot in combat or in missions, but this was outside of that kind of jurisdiction.

"I wasn't going to anyways…" Yang huffed, eliciting a snort of disbelief from Ruby. "Honest! I'm just happy you two are together, Rubes. My two favourite people are happy, why wouldn't I be?"

Seeing no further objections from Ruby, Yang popped up from her spot. "Now that's out of the way, wanna head to breakfast? If you two take any longer, I don't think we're going to make it to the mission selection on time." Yang glanced knowingly towards the door. "Though I don't think Weiss will mind if we are…"

It was like a gear in Blake's brain suddenly decided to stop working at Yang's words. _When would Weiss ever not care about being late?!_

The first indication was someone cooing and making disgustingly cute sounds… sounds that seemed so out of place that Blake didn't believe at first that they were coming from Weiss. The second indication came from the pitter patter of a very light creature, with a very distinctive gait to it's walk…

"Oh no." Blake's ears drooped as she tightly clutched onto Ruby. "He's back." The remark earned a small smirk from Yang and a confused 'huh?' from Ruby. _How did he get back? Isn't he supposed to be on an island far, far away from here?!_

"Turns out that you two weren't the only ones having a good time." A ball of fur about a foot tall ran into the room, followed by a fawning Weiss. A sight that would have elicited a giggle or two from Blake normally, had she not been dreading the thing that Weiss was following.

The only thing that Blake noticed, however, was Ruby bolting from the bed, and out of her arms before scooping up the corgi into her own. "ZWEI!"

"Bark! Bark!" It's stubby, evil little feet uselessly flailed as Ruby nuzzled it and her nose was licked by it's tongue.

Suddenly Blake was hoping Ruby took a shower before the next time they hugged.

"Yuuuup.~ Dad went on a mission and wanted us to look after him while he's gone." Yang held up a letter and a tube… out of which fell about half a ton of canned dog food.

"Eeee!" Blake could count the number of times she'd seen Ruby this happy on one hand. "This is going to be the best thing ever!"

_No. No it's not… and now this… this thing has to live with us?! _Blake's day had gone from content, sleepy cuddles in the arms of her newly acquired girlfriend… to taking care of some mangy mutt. _Except we're going on a mission, which means we can't take him and I won't have to deal with this… this thing for at least a few days!_

Yet, as a relieved look crossed Blake's face, she missed something rather important. Namely the very determined look crossing Ruby's face as her silver eyes darted between Zwei… and her girlfriend.

* * *

AU: Heeeeeeeeeeey looks like Ruby has some plans up her sleeves… be wary Blake. Be really wary.

So a couple of small things. This may get rambly, sorry in advance.

As I've said before, admittedly at least 25+ chapters back, I will not be doing freezerburn in this story. It's not their story, and while I could see how it could work in the context of Dilation, they are never going to have more than just a strong friendship and that's it. To be fair to the ship, I can't see them going anywhere as long as Ladybug in Dilation has gone, but at the same time, writing Weiss or Yang scares the ever living crap out of me.

My plan is still to continuing use canon in a way to integrate Dilation into it fairly seamlessly and to that end I won't cover much of the actual canon events. Basically… remember how I covered the volume one finale? Essentially segments around it and the like? That's the plan for the future too.

Another thing is that for the most part, for at least the past… I want to say since chapter 65 or so, Gorsouul has been editing and reading before I release. I don't always mention him, but he is usually around! :D

Once again, sorry for rambling! I hope to see you all in the last update of the day, but if not, thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day! :D


	72. A Small Step

"Young lady, what in the world could you have in the bag that is so importa-"

Ruby knew by the sudden silence, the rustling behind and the stares from her friends what had precisely just happened.

"Get back in the bag." Ruby whispered at Zwei, hoping he'd take the hint and get back into the backpack. Her words went unheeded as he barked. _Crapbaskets_.

"We are here, to investigate an abandoned urban jungle… and you brought a dog?"

"I… uh-"

"Genius!"

That was the only word Ruby was able to pick out of Doctor Oobleck's fast string of words. _Well… that turned out okay?_ "Did you hear that? I'm a genius!"

Despite the resulting face-palms, Ruby could tell that at least Weiss was happy, and even Yang. However, Blake didn't even so much as glance at her, turning back to the professor. "So what are your orders, Doctor?"

Ruby's almost smug smile wavered. _Blake sounds… disappointed, that's no-._ Ruby's smile returned in full force as Grimm rounded the corner._ No matter, our first mission is going to be a great success!_

* * *

A few hordes worth of dead Grimm later, Ruby was not quite so sure.

Not about the mission, no, they were carving through Grimm like a hot knife through butter for a few hours now, having gone into pairs to go through them faster, Weiss and Yang sticking together. Rather, about Blake. Since they landed, Ruby had been getting the feeling that her girlfriend was avoiding her.

Blake always seemed to be as far as away as possible from her, nearly out of Ruby's sight. Whenever the younger teen tried to get closer, the distance never seemed to change by much, made all the more eerie by the abandoned and decrepit buildings. _Is she avoiding me? Did I do something wrong? _

The worry built up in Ruby, as the dead Grimm continued to pile up in heaps, or would have, had they not disintegrated upon death. _Should I talk to her, or would that make this worse?_

"Ruby." Surprisingly, it was Blake that approached her. "Why did you bring _it_?"

It took Ruby a moment to realize what 'it' was. "Zwei?" Blake gave a quick nod. "Because I didn't want to leave him alone at the dorms…?" That wasn't quite the whole truth, however.

Ruby wasn't blind.

Blake hadn't had the chance warm up to Zwei, quite yet, unlike Weiss. Ruby wanted to give that chance to Blake. "…and maybe so you could get a chance to play with him?"

The Faunus took a deep breath in before mumbling something that Ruby couldn't quite understand. "Um, I couldn't hear you…"

"…dogs scare me…" Amber eyes shied away, as her arms crossed.

"O-oh." Ruby felt horrible. "I-I didn't mean to, um, I'm sorry." Yet, that made sense; _I forgot, Blake met him before during the semester break… she didn't like him much then, did she?_ "If it's okay to ask…" Blake nodded. "Uh, why?"

Black hair swayed as Blake shook her head and gave helpless shrug. "I don't know, it's just always been that way." Blake's arms hugged tightly around herself. "I guess that's the point of fear, isn't it? If you knew what was scary about it, you wouldn't be afraid anymore." Blake let out a long sigh. "As racist as it sounds, it could be because of these." Her bow twitched. "I just don't know."

_I really screwed up_. Ruby looked back at Zwei, the corgi staring up, panting, and looking adorable as ever. Yet in Blake's eyes, that wasn't the case. When Zwei looked at her, Ruby could see her girlfriend flinch. _I don't want this._

The course of action was clear to Ruby; "I'll take him over to Weiss." Ruby quickly scooped the dog up into her arms before looking for her partner. "I know she wouldn't mind watching hi-"

She was stopped by a feeble tug on her sleeve. "Blake?"

"I did promise you I wasn't going to run away anymore." Blake's voice was unsteady, as she was trying to keep calm. "I guess that applies even here."

"Are you sure?" Silver eyes studied amber ones. "If you don't like him, we could always find another way." Blake shook her head. "Do... do you want to hold him then?" Ruby held out the corgi towards her.

Blake took a tentative step, her eyes refusing to look at Zwei. Slowly but surely, the corgi transferred hands into Blake's shaky arms, her breathing hitching for a moment. "You are doing good!" Ruby said encouragingly, and for a moment, it seemed true. Blake was holding Zwei with no problems.

Then he licked her face.

Blake went stiff as a board, the colour leaving from her face. _That's not good…_ "P-please take him away."

Ruby quickly pulled the corgi away, before he jumped down to the ground. The moment he touched the ground, a very shaken Blake latched onto Ruby.

_Baby steps Blake, baby steps._

* * *

AU: This chapter difficult for me for one singular reason.

Besides doing a rather dark thing of "THE HUMAN RACISTS USED DOGS ON ME", I was struggling for reasons for why Blake doesn't like dogs. This was the best I could come up with. To be fair, it's a bit more extreme then what we've seen in canon for sure, sorry D:

Dunno when I'll get the next _Dilation_ chapter out, my schedule for the next week is currently in flux to say the least. Sorry about that... real life continues to pick up in time commits for some stupid reason D: Stupid real life. I do know _Spoon Equality_ will have another chapter on Saturday, but that's about it for the moment.

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone has a wonderful day!:D


	73. A Small Step II

"Psst, Blake… you awake?"

Yang's voice added to the mix of the crackle of the campfire. "Yeah."

"Why do you think he asked us about being a huntress? Like… what was he trying to say?"

Amber eyes cracked open as Blake was greeted by flickering light of their only source of heat. "Maybe he was just curious."

"You think?"

"…no."

Yang turned towards the other sleeping bag. "Weiss… are you awake?"

"Of course I am awake! You two are talking and I think…"

As Weiss started to talk, Blake half listened, her brain still turning over what Professor Oobleck had said to her.

"_There is too much wrong in this world to stand by and do nothing – inequality, corruption. Someone has to stop it. "_

"_Very well. How?"_

It made sense in her head; _do something that makes a difference._

At first that had taken on the role of being a member of the white fang – _they fought for equality and against racism. How much nobler could you get when it came to a cause? _

Yet, all things change with time, and what had been a noble mission was corrupted into a nightmare that Blake could scarcely believe by her own partner. It was a vision she could no longer support… so she left to find her own path.

_I can just take one step at a time, just think of what to do next_. The problem with that logic was while that was good in the short term… long term, not so much. _I become a huntress and then what?_ That was the big unknown in Blake's plan, what to do after becoming one of the elite guardians against the Grimm.

Blake's thoughts drifted back to an old conversation she had with Ruby about the future, a small smile stretching her lips. _I'll have Ruby at least_. That didn't answer the bigger question however.

How she was going to change anything.

That didn't seem to be the problem for Weiss at all, on the contrary, she seemed to know exactly what she needed to do.

"…which is why I feel the need to make things right. If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it."

"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a partner, named Adam." Blake felt an urge to do something that was so alien to her; the whole concept was foreign. Actually share about her past, an act that didn't go unnoticed if the glance that Yang and Weiss shared was anything to go by.

"More of a mentor actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place." Blake forced out a harsh laugh. "Of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be… not perfect for everyone."

"I decided to become a huntress because they always fight for good, they're the noblest warriors in the world… but I never really thought past that. When I leave the academy what will I- how can I undo so many years of hate?"

"I'm sure you'd figure it out." Blake's partner said after a while. "You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake."

"But I am! I do all the time!" Blake nearly bit her tongue to stop herself from yelling, taking deep breathes to calm down. "When you learned I was a member of the White Fang, I didn't know what to do, so I ran! When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran!" A sad sigh escaped Blake's lips. "Even my semblance is running away. I was born with the ability to leave behind an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!"

"Blake Belladonna that is an outright lie." It was Weiss that pointed an accusing finger at her. "You don't always run." Confused amber eyes focused at stern icy blue ones. "When you told us that you were a Faunus, you didn't run from that."

"That's only because Ruby was there. If she never found out, I… I probably would have never told anyone." Blake guiltily admitted. "I would have ran away."

"But you never ran away from Ruby."

"I…"

"If you did, you never would have asked her out."

"That's… that's different." A slight blush burned across Blake's cheeks. "Whenever I find something that I don't know how to handle, I run… and I have no idea how to undo all this hate."

"Well, we still have time until we graduate, and it's not like you are gonna do it alone... it's not like we're going to go our separate ways or anything. Well, I don't plan to." A questioning blonde eyebrow rose in Weiss' direction.

"You, Blake, Ruby…" Weiss gestured to each of them. "You're my teammates, my friends. I'm not going to abandon any of you."

The worry that had been creased across Blake's face lessened.

_I might not know what to do by myself, but maybe _we_ can figure out something… together._

* * *

AU: Wow, this was kinda crappy.

In hindsight I may remove this chapter... it's really quite bad. Really thinking the same issue will happen next chapter, so I might just skip that too. Just do what Gorsouul suggested to have Blake's heart warm enough until it overheats and explodes. Rest of Dilation will be Ruby mourning but never recovering and eventually ending her life. And then it was all a dream.

So real life has been super busy and I haven't had much of a chance to write, and now that I'm doing it again it's like HOW DOES ONE WRITE, WHAT ARE WORDS, WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?!

I may be struggling to write for the next few weeks, sorry about that D:

I'm going to start chipping away at Acceptance and see if I can get it done in weekend. Fingers crossed!

Oh, also, for thoses who don't know, Volume 4 is October 22nd, and the redesign looks pretty cool.

Thank you all for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	74. A Small Step III

Ruby was missing.

That was the only thing that Blake was completely certain of when Zwei ran over to the giant sinkhole in the middle of the street. It had become abundantly clear when her amber eyes spied Crescent Rose laying forgotten on the ground… something that Ruby would never do willingly.

At first, Blake had tried to logically calm herself down; _it's an old city, of course there are going to be sinkholes, she'll be fine!_ Never mind the fact that they couldn't get a hold of her with their scrolls, Blake was confident that Ruby was fine.

It was as Doctor Oobleck started to lead them deeper into the underground complex that Blake's confidence in Ruby's well-being was shaken. Ruby hadn't been found at the bottom. Had she maybe gone into one of the tunnels to find a way back up? Why hadn't she called?

_What if Ruby ran into Grimm?_ Blake was all too aware as to how combat capable her girlfriend was without her weapon. _But she could run away! Her semblance is speed, after all._ And for a while, Blake was able to quell the rising anxiety.

That changed when the group encountered the White Fang members guarding the entrance to the subterranean city. That frustration that grew from their progress being slowed to fight them was marred by panic.

_What if the White Fang captured Ruby?_

There was no stopping _that_ panic.

The thought that a bunch of extremists who hated humans currently had Blake's very human girlfriend made her cold with fear, her ears flattening under her bow. Her girlfriend, who was quite defenseless as the weight of Crescent Rose on her back reminded Blake.

It was a sudden rush of fear that Blake had felt before. Sure, she had friends during her White Fang days who had been in peril or had been captured or killed… it wasn't to say she hadn't feared for them, but on the other hand, she never had someone she cared for as much as she did for Ruby.

What had once been a well-founded but slightly detached fear that Blake had been able to suppress, now spilled over as her mind raced through the possibilities – one more gruesome and terrible than the last.

Ruby, the adorable teen who didn't accuse Blake of anything when she found out about her ears. Who had kept hidden that fact from their teammates. Ruby, who just wanted Blake to have fun, to go to the dance and get some sleep. The same Ruby who Blake had started dating not more than a day ago after having a crush on the girl for almost as long as she knew her.

And now someone like Adam, or maybe even Adam himself had the possibility of finding her, alone and defenseless, maybe even trapped under some rocks deep underground away from any of her friends…

The only that Blake could do was run faster. Faster than Ruby's own partner, faster than Ruby's sister. Even faster than their professor.

She couldn't even imagine what would happen… or rather that was the exact problem, she could. Blake had been a member of the White Fang, she knew precisely how they operated and what it had become; humans were never treated well.

_What happens if they figure out Ruby knows me? _

That was another thing altogether – Blake was a traitor to the cause, she'd abandoned them mid-mission. Not only had she betrayed the cause, but she had betrayed the leader on a very personal level given he was her mentor.

Ruby was perhaps in the most uniquely horrifying position if the White Fang found that out; not only would be she a human but a human dating a traitor to the cause…

Blake's knuckles went white from their grip on Gambol Shroud as she sped deeper into the cave system, out pacing even the normally blur-like Oobleck.

Slash, stab, shoot, dodge, slash...

The Faunus threw herself into the running fight in a desperate attempt to keep her mind from thinking too much. The mechanical nature muscle memory drilled into her for years, the flash of a gun, the swing of a sword… that was what Blake tried to focus on.

Blake could hardly believe her eyes when a fluttering red cloaked figure started running towards her, breaking her sole focus on who her next opponent was… only for a line of White Fang soldiers to jump in between. Before they could even bring their guns to bare, they were already in the air, having been swept away by Blake as Ruby nearly rammed into her looking only slightly worse for wear.

Once more, instinctive muscle motion took over as Blake wrapped Ruby in a bear-like hug. "Ruby!"

"Blake!" Relief flooded her senses and the fear, the panic, the overwhelming anxiety finally started to abate with her girlfriend in her arms, as Blake could finally put her fears to rest. She could finally get her hands to stop shaking. "Uh… Blake?"

"I was so worried." Blake could only hug Ruby tighter. "They didn't hurt you or anything?"

"I'm fine!" It was only then that Blake started to loosen the embrace. "That Torchwick guy was trying to get me to talk but I wasn't saying anything!"

Amber eyes flickered towards the bowler hat man who was booking it towards the train further into the cavern, seething with an overprotective anger that she hadn't felt before. "He won't be doing that again." Blake's focus resettled on Ruby adopting a far kinder expression. "I-"

"Hey lovebirds, they are getting away!" Yang's voice finally pulled the two out of their little moment. "You can save that for later!"

Blake couldn't help but give a guilty blush as the two broke apart.

_At least Ruby is safe._

* * *

AU: Hey look, a new chapter. Neat.

Blake fearing that Adam has Ruby is a scary thing.

A new chapter cometh. Though, to be fair, a lot of the reason this came out a bit later was because trying to make this chapter seem interesting was hard. In the end I'm moderately happy with this. It gets what I wanted done.

Guess what that means?

RETURN TO FLUFF LAND IS SOON.

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	75. Time for Bed

"Well, we did it."

To Ruby, it sounded like Blake was more than a little stunned at her own statement, which, to be fair, there was a good reason for it: _it's not every day that you stop a Grimm invasion!_

"If we don't get extra credit for this, I'm going to be seriously disappointed," Weiss stated. Classes were the farthest thing from Ruby's mind at the moment, her mind was focused on the fact that her team had lived through the battle… and that she was currently holding hands with her girlfriend.

"Weiss, a two-headed snake literally crushed a bakery," Yang retorted with a snort. "I wouldn't count on it."

A frown started to pull at Ruby's lips. _Those poor baked goods, gone forever!_ Evidently, it was enough for Blake to pick up on, as she gently squeezed Ruby's hand. "They'll rebuild it, don't worry." The bright smile that Blake flashed her was more than enough to reassure her and add a growing heat to her cheeks.

Almost guiltily, Ruby looked away from the amber eyes, before her own silver ones settled on the setting sun. It was a sight that Ruby didn't see often, whether because she was always doing something, or because she just wasn't outside enough, it was hard to tell. The beautiful orange hue covering the sky as it dimmed, the city lights starting to flicker on in the distance…

Slowly, ever so slowly, Ruby leaned against Blake, her head resting against her girlfriend's shoulder, as said girlfriend's head came to lean against the top of Ruby's. "That was a pretty crazy day."

"Yeah." Blake nodded slightly, so as not to disturb Ruby. "But at least we're okay."

Ruby's smile lessened at the comment. "I-I don't know. A lot of people did get hurt, and most of the city got wrecked… and we never did figure out what those guys were after…"

"But no one died," Blake immediately countered. "Buildings can be rebuilt, people can heal."

"I suppose…" Ruby conceded slowly, before looking over at their other two team members for input… only to see them start getting up. "Huh?"

"We're going to bed," Yang simply stated. "Plus, we don't want to intrude on you two!" The suggestive winking made it very clear what Yang meant, causing Ruby's blush to grow even deeper.

Watching the retreating figures of Yang and Weiss, Ruby couldn't help but to sigh. "This is going to happen a lot, isn't it?"

"Most likely," Blake offered in an almost monotone. "Then again, it is _very_ nice to have alone time with you and not have to find a way to kick them out." Once more, there was an infectious smile on Blake's face that spread all too quickly to Ruby's, prompting the smaller teen to bury her face in the crook of Blake's neck, the familiar smell of her girlfriend overloading her senses.

In the dwindling light, the two of them stayed like that for a long time; Ruby resting against Blake, with the taller teen's head comfortably touching Ruby's. By far, it was the most comforting thing that Ruby had gone through in the last few days.

"I was really scared, y'know?" Ruby was the first one to break the silence, her voice muffled by Blake's neck. "When everyone went off by themselves into the train and I stayed with Oobleck."

"I was fine." Ruby pulled away enough to glance up, and see an almost sadistic smile cross Blake's lips, a sight she seldom saw. "I got to beat Torchwick. Badly." The creepy smile morphed into a more concerned expression. "You were okay, right?"

It took a moment for Ruby to remember the sheer panic that Blake had about her when they rescued her. "Yup! I had Profe- I mean Doctor Oobleck with me! …I'm just glad everyone got out okay."

"Yeah…" Blake's hand squeezed Ruby's. "Is this going to happen with every mission we do now?"

"Hehe, I kinda hope not, worrying isn't fun at all." Ruby sadly shook her head. "We're going to be a mess if we keep being worrywarts."

"Well, we got a while until our next mission," Blake simply said as she let go for Ruby's hand and pulled her into a half hug, her sight drawn back to the skyline, along with Ruby's.

For a moment, just a moment, the orange of the setting sun turned green. "Woah." Both of the teens echoed as the last of the daylight disappeared behind the city.

"That was really pretty," Ruby stated. "Does it always do that?" Blake shrugged. "We should watch the sunset more often!"

"Agreed," Blake nodded. "Though, I don't know about you, but I think I'm headed to bed."

Ruby energetically nodded. "Sleep sounds awesome."

Yet, neither of the two made any slightest bit of movement from where they were. Ruby was too content to stay in the arms of her girlfriend, while Blake was enjoying holding the younger teen too much to let go.

"Bark, bark!"

And like that, the moment was broken as Blake scrambled into Ruby's arms from the sudden sound. However, Ruby's arms were not strong enough to hold up the Faunus, causing the two to fall over backwards.

As much as Ruby loved Zwei, there were sometimes where she really wished he could keep his mouth shut.

…on the other hand, having Blake clinging to her was even better.

* * *

AU: Aww, that was cute.

Dunno how this came out; I burned my dominant hand at work yesterday, so typing this up was a tad weird, but I think I'm better now? I hope?

Also, even though I skipped it, in this version Blake totally beat the shit out of Torchwick when his aura dropped.

_Spoon Equality_ will be on Saturday, _Acceptance_ will definitely be in early September… I'm having to do a full rewrite for it.

Thank you for reading, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	76. The Date I

A couple of weeks had passed since the breach.

Life had slowly returned to normal, the city had been repaired, and classes had finally resumed once more, much to Ruby's chagrin.

Which was why Ruby and Blake were currently sitting side by side on Blake's bed, – Ruby's head resting against her girlfriend's shoulder - pouring over notes for Professor Port's class… for some reason, Ruby had a hard time staying awake in that class, and ergo her own recollection of the class was… lacking.

While class had gone back to normal, Ruby and Blake's dynamic was still… settling in.

Boundaries were things that were hard to define; Ruby still had trouble figuring out why a once friendly hug now felt like a far more intimate one, or if cuddling was something that was always okay, or just when the two of them where alone. For her own part, Blake seemed pretty much okay with whatever Ruby did, though the younger teen was still uneasy about pushing boundaries.

On the one hand, there didn't seem to be any reason _to_ be uneasy about it. _Blake doesn't seem to mind no matter what I do, no matter how much we cuddle or hold hands…_ Yet, on the flip side, Ruby, herself, felt uneasy about going too quickly. After all, this was her first relationship; she didn't want to ruin it.

Which was why she was content to do some light cuddling as they studied. Nothing too overt or crazy. The warm touch, the smell that she had come to association with Blake… For the most part, that was great. Ruby was happy with it, and so was Blake. That didn't change the fact that Ruby had a rising worry that she may be going too slow.

_What if Blake gets bored with just cuddling and hand holding?_ By all means, it was pretty tame stuff. Without a doubt, there was far more intimate stuff to do, but Ruby wasn't precisely comfortable with going any further then where they were at.

"Is something wrong?" Blake's gentle voice asked, amber eyes flickering to her, as Ruby's pencil had stopped moving long ago. "Are you stuck?"

"Nope, just zoning out, sorry!" Ruby awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, before turning back to the piles of notes.

"It's fine, I could use a break myself." Blake's arms swept back as she stretched, the two of them having been still for quite some time. Naturally those arms came back to rest comfortably around Ruby in a half-hug cuddle, prompting a small blush from the teen. "Do you want to get some snacks?"

"Hmm…" That sounded like a very, _very_ tempting offer, especially if the proposed snacks were of the cookie variety. Tempting enough for Ruby to break the warm embrace Blake had around her. "Yup!"

A huge smile stretched across Blake's lips, much to Ruby's confusion, as the Faunus reached under the bed and pulled out a box of cookies. Pulling out a singular one, Blake held it to Ruby's lips, immediately prompting her to eat the baked good her girlfriend was presenting. Then a second time, and a third and even a fourth time. _Having your girlfriend feed you cookies is the best! _Ruby thought to herself, as a happy giggle started to bubble up._  
_

"Are you two ever going to go on a date?" A mane of blonde hair suddenly appeared over the side of the top bunk as Yang looked down at them.

"Buh-wha… what do you mean?" It took Ruby a moment to form words as the fifth cookie never came. "We go on plenty of dates… like study dates!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Those don't count, you were already doing that before you two became official." Her lip compressed into a small frown "You two have been dating for like…a few weeks now, right?"

"Yes, and…?" Blake asked, her gaze unflinching.

"Well, you guys never ever go out. It's just study dates in the room or the library." The problem was, Ruby couldn't exactly say that Yang was wrong in any regard, because that's exactly what they did do. "Have you ever thought about, oh, I don't know… going on a date to the city?"

Blake shrugged her shoulders. "To be honest, I'm just happy spending time with her; it doesn't matter to me if it happens here or someplace else." A small smile flashed across the black-haired teen's face. "What about you, Ruby?"

Something clicked in Ruby's mind. _Maybe if we go on dates someplace else, Blake won't get bored?_ It seemed like a perfectly reasonable answer to the rising concern she had. "M-maybe we should?" That earned an eyebrow raise from Blake. "I-I mean, it couldn't hurt to go someplace else, right?"

"I suppose so?" Blake offered after a moment, before the smile reestablished itself on her face. "Where would you like to go?"

Instantly, thousands of ideas flew through Ruby's mind, all cliché, which meant that she didn't want to do them. _Except… if they are cliché, that means they work, right?_ The most cliché idea that came to mind for a date…

"How about we go to a movie this weekend?" Blake nodded, validating that it was the right decision in Ruby's head, relief flooding in. That only left one other concern;

_I'm actually going on my first date… I can't screw up!_

* * *

AU: FINALLY THEY GO ON A DATE!

Okay, so while it is cliché, that's exactly WHY Ruby thinks of the movie theater. Yup.

In other news, my house smells less like skunk, and my dog feels happier now that people want to get within ten feet of her.

In other news, I have no idea when Acceptance, chapter 24 will come out. I'm hoping for early September, but the way things are going, it might be October. It's not because of a lack of work, but constant rewrites, I swear!

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	77. The Date II

Weiss was trying her best to study.

She really, truly, with the best of intentions, was trying to study as hard as she possibly could.

However, no amount of effort was going to break through the heavy sound of footsteps pacing inside the dorm room, as Yang kept going from her bed to the door and back, in some kind of never-ending loop.

At first, Weiss had figured that something like this might happen; Yang could be a little bit overprotective of Ruby at times, and worrying about how the date was going, therefore, seemed only natural. However, Weiss had a fair amount of certainty it had more to do with the fact that Yang probably wanted to take pictures of them on the date – at least if her attempts to do so before they left were any indication of it.

So naturally, Weiss had expected this restlessness to stop after a good twenty or thirty minutes, but…

…Yang had been doing this for _hours _now.

There was a limit to how much Weiss could focus with that sound. "Could you stop pacing?" Weiss finally asked, her tone showing that she was, perhaps, slightly irked. "It's really distracting."

"Huh? Oh. Sorry." Yang mumbled absentmindedly before sitting down on a bed. For a brief few minutes, silence reigned supreme, as Weiss started to make progress on note taking…

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Yang's foot was tapping against the ground, as she fidgeted with her hair, once more breaking whatever concentration Weiss had. It was becoming increasingly clear that she wasn't going to get anything productive done today.

Letting out a barely concealed, irritated sigh, Weiss closed her notebook and pushed away the textbook before turning to her clearly distressed friend, and took a deep breath. "So, Yang, what's on your mind?"

Yang's lilac eyes gave her a look that bordered on 'are you kidding me?' and slight panic. "Ruby and Blake's date."

"They'll probably tell you all the details afterwards, if you are worried on missing out…" The massive blond mane shook. "Something else, perhaps?"

"What happens if something goes wrong?" The fear in Yang's voice was almost uncharacteristic of her, something that Weiss had seldom heard. "I mean, if something _does_ go wrong, our team is going to be a mess…"

Weiss' eyes narrowed. _I thought she'd be more worried about missing out on seeing her sister's first date… not how it actually goes_. "You're worried about nothing."

Yang looked up, lilac eyes clearly not trusting Weiss. "You say that… but this is Ruby and Blake we're talking about. Something could go wrong, and their date could be ruined, and-"

"You're precisely right, this is Ruby and Blake; those two have been enamored with each other for months now. It'll be fine."

"…but what if we made a mistake?" Yang focused on the piles of books holding up one of the bunk beds. "I mean, we kinda pushed them into this; maybe Ruby wasn't ready for dating, or Blake really wasn't even all that interested besides friendship."

"Really?" Weiss' tone was thick with disbelief. "We're talking about the same two girls who spent more time together than with their own partners, or who keep falling asleep in the same bed, unless there are another Ruby and Blake that you are talking about?"

"But… but…" Weiss' words were having little effect on the blonde, as she kept sputtering out scenarios, "but what if their date goes bad, like someone spills a drink, or says something rude or-"

"Yang, stop worrying." Weiss' voice rose a good few decibels. "You are being more than a bit of a worry wort. So what if something goes wrong? They have other dates, it's not like they don't know each other already."

Yang raised a finger in protest before it limply sank back down, whatever she was going to say dying in her throat. "…I guess so…"

"Good." Weiss nodded in approval. "Now then, we have a test tomorrow, that we both should be studying for."

"Weiss, its Port," Yang deadpanned, some of her normal mood returning. "If you can't remember the answer, you can just make something up, and he'll pass you anyways."

"But if you _study_, you don't have to make anything up. Wait… is that how you've been passing all of his tests?" Accusation filled Weiss' voice. "Is that why you keep making fun of me studying for it?!"

Yang merely shrugged with a shit-eating grin pulling at the corners of her lips. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Why yo-"

"We're back!"

Weiss' body froze for a moment, before turning towards the door, Yang mirroring her.

Standing there, none the worse for wear were Blake and Ruby. Both looked pleasantly content, and nothing seemed amiss. This time, it was Weiss' turn to turn towards Yang with a smug grin. _I told you it was going to be fine._

Yet, that didn't stop Yang from jumping out of her seat and rushing them, "So, how was the date?! Tell me all about it, and don't leave anything out!"

"Well…"

* * *

AU: To be continued…

[insert JoJo's Bizarre Adventures' music here]

The first date for ladybug will actually be next chapter, I promise this time.

I decided to move this chapter's release up to before _Wrath_ today.

Quick question for everyone, but is it just me, or has there been a decrease in the fandom? I've noticed overall views/reviews going down, as well as followers/favourites rate has decreased sustainably, so I'm curious. Last August and September, the same thing happened too…

I swear, half the reason I write is so I can collect data and make meaningless analyses on what I get.

Anywho, for those who I won't see in the next update of the day, thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day! :D


	78. The Date III

As they waited for the previews to end, Blake couldn't help but feel like something was… missing.

_I know I didn't forget anything._ Ruby had triple checked all of her belongings when they took the airbus to the city – so there would be no awkward searching and missing the movie. _We even bought the tickets the day before and we got here early… so what is it?_

If Blake was being truthful, picking a movie was probably the _most_ cliché thing that Ruby could have possibly picked. Yet, that had been the precise reason that Blake was fine with it; it was something that was very much like Ruby. _It's simple; we go to the movies, have a good time, and maybe cuddle and hold hands in the dark. A classic date._

So far, things were moving along well – they'd paid for each other's tickets and food, and were sitting in the back row of the theater. Said theater wasn't too packed so there wasn't any obnoxious crowding or people blocking their view… yet it felt off.

It was something that Blake just couldn't quite figure out. It wasn't until the massive kaiju appeared on the screen that Blake was able to put her finger on what precisely was off.

Blake liked to view herself as something of a romantic.

Concepts such as soulmates, or that everyone would find their true love in their lifetime were immutable facts to Blake. She believed in love, and great romantic gestures, how the tiniest thing could show just how deeply someone loved their other half.

Perhaps that's why she read so many novels on the subject of romance – where two star-crossed lovers would meet no matter the obstacles standing in their way. They were tales that gave the Blake hope in her own future endeavors, that a life like that was possible for her, even through all the discrimination that she had faced.

Of course, it had happened – she found her companion in the form of Ruby. Ruby was someone she could have fun with, to always find an open ear that'd listen to her. The teen was someone that Blake, in turn, had grown to cherish, to want the best for her. That maybe, just maybe Ruby might be the person that she'd spend the rest of her days with, that their relationship would go on long after they graduated Beacon. Yet…

Somehow, perhaps because of that, Blake had always imagined her very first date would be something a bit more than going to see a movie.

A dinner at a fine restaurant… something _grander_.

Yet, because it was Ruby, this was fine. It was exactly the kind of thing that she would do.

As the giant monsters fought on the screen, in the decidedly unromantic monster movie, Blake came to another realization. While it may not have been the height of romantic gestures, this was definitely something both of them enjoyed – it was a moment that just the two of them shared.

_Does it really matter what I do for my first date? As long as we have fun and a good time, that's really all that counts, right? _Glancing over to Ruby, Blake could see the huge smile etched onto her lips, the poorly CGI'd explosions reflected in her wide, silver eyes... the occasional tightening of her grip around Blake's hand whenever it loosened. Ruby certainly seemed happy.

_Maybe I'm just overthinking things?_ It certainly seemed that way. _I suppose it really doesn't matter as long I get to spend it with Ruby._

Slowly, ever so slowly, Blake's free arm went over Ruby's head, as she pulled her girlfriend in close, eliciting a surprised 'eep!" from her.

"Psst, Blake."

"Hm?"

"Are you… are you having fun?"

"I'm with you… so I'd say so." Her brow furrowed. "Are you not?"

"Nu-uh… I was just worried… I kinda just picked the first idea that came to mind…"

"I didn't mean to put you on the spot."

"Its fine… want some popcorn?"

"Well, seeing as I'm a bit occupied…" A slight smile creeped up the corners of Blake's lips. "Could you feed me some?"

* * *

"So what you're telling me is that you two went to the movies, and saw a monster movie and then came back… that's it?" Yang's voice was filled with incredulity, as Ruby shyly nodded. "You didn't even think of taking her to dinner…?"

Ruby's eyes widened in horror, as she frantically waved her arms around. "Uh, we can still do that!" She grabbed Blake by the hand, only to stop as she glanced at the clock. "Crapbaskets, it's too late for that – the buses stopped running!" Ruby mournfully turned towards Blake. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine Ruby. I had a good time." Blake hugged her girlfriend tightly. "We can always have that be the next date."

The wide smile that Ruby gave her was the perfect way to end the day for Blake.

* * *

AU: So, if I'm being completely truthful, I actually really didn't have much in the way for stuff in the first date. It just goes on without a hitch, for the most part.

…what, did you expect me to screw with them or something? What kind of monster do you think I am? (Unrelated chapter 60 review responses)

I know the whole thing I said was once we got to ten reviews, I'd get a chapter out within a week… well, for some reason the last month has been a bit of a creative rut. I've written shockingly little given how much free time I've had as of late. So yeah. I got no excuses.

I'll try and get back to a semi-weekly schedule, but no promises on that front… it's just been hard to write recently D:

Anywho, thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	79. The Little Things I

When two individuals become romantically involved, changes start to happen – both small and big.

For Ruby and Blake, those changes took some time to become apparent.

For Blake, the biggest change that had come was perhaps the simplest of all. That wasn't to say that being able to cuddle with Ruby in the privacy of their room whenever she felt the urge wasn't _amazing_, or anything of the like but…

Being able to simply hold her girlfriend's hand whenever she wanted to – which was very, _very_ often – held a quiet beauty to it.

It was a constant reminder that they were together-together, as Nora would have put it, something that they hadn't done before they became official. There was something uniquely intimate to it, which Blake couldn't quite put her finger on. Plus, they could always do it whenever they wanted.

During class, for instance, it was made easier by the fact that Blake could sit on her left-handed girlfriend's right side – much to Weiss' utter annoyance. Or when they were walking through the halls. Or even at night, when they cuddled together and read before eventually nodding off, in a tangled pile of blankets and limbs.

Oddly enough, it hadn't started out that way. Quite the contrary in fact; the first time Blake had causally attempted to hold Ruby's hand, she'd shot straight up like someone had hit her with a taser. A few clumsy attempts later, – including one that ended with milk spraying out of Ruby's nose… on to Weiss - Blake had been getting the sinking feeling that she had been pushing the boundaries _too much_. Consequently, her surprise when Ruby started to hold her hand every chance they got after that was immense, as was her relief.

As if to prove a point, they were holding hands at the very moment, as the two ate in the cafeteria – their consumption slowed by being limited to one hand. Yet neither even considered letting go, their fingers interlaced and occasionally squeezing each other's palm, providing a continuous flood of happiness to each other.

_I must look like some kind of idiot_, Blake idly noted, as she had gone from something of a neutral expression to an ever present smile, always pulling at the corners of her lips. _I wouldn't want it any other way. _

Neither did Ruby, if the gentle squeeze was anything to go by, the smaller girl's hand trying to press deeper against the elder teen's hand. Such a simple gesture, yet it held so much meaning for her.

However, the gesture didn't go unnoticed by some people, no matter how small it was. It went without saying that Yang and Weiss noticed it, but that wasn't it. No, there was a pair of turquoise eyes that seemed to be drawn to the two smiling girls, who had been acting… differently. Suspiciously different.

Blake's first indication that something was out of the norm was when she idly realized that Nora hadn't said a word in nearly fifteen minutes. Her second indication was the huge gasp, as the orange-haired teen ducked underneath the table, and came back up with the kind of speed that only Ruby should possess.

"You two are holding hands!" Nora's finger frantically pointed back and forth between the Faunus and her girlfriend. "And you keep smiling, and glancing at each other…" Blake could feel the heat rising to her cheeks, as the bubbly girl leaned across the table, her expression more serious then she'd ever seen it before. "Are you two… together-together?"

While it sounded like a whisper, and it probably was for Nora, it was still half-shouted, causing anyone within five tables to crane around and look at the two blushing girls, prompting Ruby to half-hid behind Blake.

"What, that's crazy Nora, they aren't dating." Jaune was blissfully unaware, only for suspicions to crack from the lack of a response. "…right?"

There was a number of things that Blake wasn't the fan of, one such thing was being put in the spotlight, something that Ruby clearly felt as well. "Well, we-"

"Are-together-together-and-went-on-a-date-okay?!"

"I knew it!" Nora jumped back to her quiet partner, who along with Pyrrha were clearly not shocked by the revelation. "See, I told you…"

For some reason, acknowledging it didn't make the feeling of embarrassment subside, as everyone's stares seemed to be more curious now, causing Blake to wish that they had said nothing. Yet Ruby's hand tightly squeezing around her own, made that worry lessen._ People were going to find out anyway, so now is good a time as any._

A small smile quirked at her lips, as their interlaced fingers slowly came into view, as Blake came to a realization. _At least we don't have to hide it anymore. _

That was something, at least.

* * *

AU: Aww look, cute dorks holding hands, how adorkable! ~

Yeah, not gonna lie, I've been lazy as of late. I can't exactly pin it on me being busy, though it certainly feels like it. I know my obsession with _Enderal: Shards of Order_ certainly isn't helping the issue.

For those who are wondering, chapter 25 of _Acceptance_ is TECHNICALLY done. I say technically because it needs to go through about 3 or 4 more editing passes before it gets the big thumbs up to post, so for those of you who are waiting, which are many I imagine, it won't be until November at this point. I'm very, VERY sorry for the wait on that! D:

I've been taking a very… well, hands off approach to Dilation as of late, clearly evidenced by the lack of chapters that I always apologize for. I need to change that back to actual progress, because my total writing output seems to be dimming (Dilation and Acceptance are both examples).

I know people tell me that taking a break is fine and all that jazz, but I've gotten to the point where I'm only writing during the week for Spoon Equality which is quite bad. And Slothful. So very slothful am I.

Sorry, just rambling.

Anywho, this might be a four part chapter chain, if all goes as planned, see you next time! :P

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	80. The Little Things II

"Ruby."

"Blake."

Silver eyes stood their ground in front of the questioning amber ones.

"What are you doing?" Blake's voice held not nearly as much curiosity as her eyes did, but more of a neutral tone.

"Cuddling… with… you…?" Ruby looked as if she'd just been asked a question on why people fall back to the ground when they jumped.

"I can see that." A single amused eyebrow quirked upwards.

"Do… do you not want to cuddle?" Blake's heart hurt as Ruby's voice became full of disappointment, like a puppy whose owner just put it in a cage. "We don't have to cuddle…" Reluctant arms pulled away from Blake, as Ruby slowly, ever so slowly moved away.

Not that she got far, before Blake pulled her in close. "I never said that I _didn't_ want to cuddle," the Faunus countered, provoking a quiet 'yay' before Ruby latched back onto her, "but I remember us falling asleep in different beds…"

To be more precise, Ruby fell asleep in her bed while studying and Blake didn't quite feel all that safe putting two people on a bed held up by some haphazardly tied lengths of rope. Plus, getting up there was sure to wake up Ruby, as Blake had discovered that she was quite the light sleeper… it really didn't take much to do that.

"O-oh…" Silver eyes averted from amber ones, deciding to find the bed sheets to be far more interesting. "I woke up."

"So I can tell."

"…and I thought 'hey, Blake looks pretty comfy and I really want to snuggle' and… so I did."

"Ah." Blake certainly wasn't one to complain, as she pulled her girlfriend tightly against her. "Well, goodnight then."

"Night, Blake."

For some reason, sleep was far harder to find now that Ruby was cradled in her arms. _Usually it makes it easier, not the other way around_. Elusive sleep was the worst kind of sleep. _At least I can cuddle with Ruby._ That almost made up for it.

With nothing else to do, as minutes ticked on, Blake became attuned with all the little noises that Ruby made – from the way she slowly breathed, or the sound of her fingers clenching every so often around the blanket, or Blake's clothes…

The Faunus let out a long, low sigh as she accepted her fate. _I'm not going to fall asleep tonight, am I? Oh well, I've done worse, at least I got a few hours of sleep._ With that, she snuggled deeper against Ruby, trying to will unconsciousness to overtake her at some point of the night.

Immeasurable amount of time passed, as Blake refused to open her eyes until an alarm went off. She wasn't going to open her eyes until then and not a moment sooner. _I'll fall asleep at some point, I always do-_

And then Ruby's hands strayed downwards, still tightly wrapped around Blake in a kind of clinging lock that couldn't be broken. Down to the point where they were resting on top of Blake's butt. Any sense of sleepiness left Blake as she came to the realization that there was no way she was going to fall asleep anytime soon considering the recent, but vaguely pleasant, development.

_She'll let go eventually_. That was what Blake told herself, as Ruby's hands stayed firmly planted._ They drifted there, they'll drift away at some point. Hopefully._ That being said, Blake would be quite content if they didn't move away. _I'm already awake at this point, I might as well enjoy it…?_

Ruby murmured something, clearly in dream land as her hands clenched. Except unlike all the previous times, where she grabbed a blanket or clothing, her fingers grabbed onto Blake.

It took a massive amount of self-control from letting out a rather loud and un-dignified noise, before Ruby let go, whatever dream she had been in, passed.

_Yeah, okay, this isn't going to work. _

Blake had reached a very important conclusion, _if I'm going to sleep tonight, I'm going to need Ruby to _not_ do that again. Which means it's time to reposition._

If there was one thing that Blake had, it was time. Time to slowly, ever so inexorably shift around. Slow enough to not wake up her sleeping girlfriend. Gently sliding Ruby's arms up, away from her backside, but around the back of her neck. Then, subtly over her hand, transferring the clinging arms to wrap around one of her own arms.

Next, the challenge was to roll them over, so it wouldn't happen again. Carefully and gently, she turned them from lying on their side, to lying on her back, with Ruby cuddled up on top of her, her head resting in the crook of Blake's neck. _Perfect_.

Now it was time for the real mission: trying to fall back asleep, a task that Blake was slightly more up for now that her butt wasn't being grabbed. Except…

With Ruby lying on top of her, Blake couldn't move, much less get up, which was extremely problematic for one reason alone.

_I need to pee._

* * *

AU: Hey look, a cute chapter. I'm realizing I need more chapters with dialogue in them, because a lot of the time, they are complete introspection. Which, while nice on its own, in large amounts is bad.

Anywho, anyone have suggestions for future chapters? Or requests, I suppose? A lot of the ideas I have recently have been shorter in nature than even 800 words, hence why this might feel like it dragged on for a bit. Originally it was up to Ruby falling asleep, and then I added Blake not being able to fall asleep some days later.

Yup. That pretty much covers it for today. Next update most likely won't be till next month with a _Spoon Equality_ and _Acceptance_ update.

Thanks for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	81. The Little Things III

Whoever said old books smell pleasant had lied, Ruby decided.

For the better part of the day, Blake and herself had been in a secluded corner of the library, doing some research for one of Doctor Oobleck's assignments… which included looking at books that were so old they made Jaune's weapon look brand new, comparatively speaking.

More pertinently, this was why they were going through books that smelled like really old noodles with untranslatable quotes from other books that were even older. In turn, Ruby was bored to tears, though that was a far cry from her girlfriend, as Ruby glanced at her. Blake was totally engrossed into a centuries old tome, glancing away every few minutes to jot down a note or two.

_I still can't believe that we're dating!_ There were times when Ruby couldn't quite comprehend it; the fact that her girlfriend was the beautiful black-haired teen next to her. That her best friend was now _hers_, just as Ruby was now Blake's.

Perhaps the best part of it – well, one of the many great things – was that Ruby could watch Blake to her heart's content; a far more interesting thing to do than read musty old books about how much someone could get fined for killing a deer.

And there was so much to watch: from how her amber eyes darted across the page, with a slight twinkle in them. Or how her bow twitched from every small sound, like every time someone turned a page across, even if they were obscured by the tall shelves of books. Or, how the corners of her lips curled slightly up into a faint smile whenever she was reading. Even the way she'd occasionally reach for her cup of tea was endearing; a small sip that always made her lick her lips. Truly, a lot to watc-

"Ruby?" The girl in question jolted and smoothly looked back at her long forgotten book she was holding.

_Act natural! _"Uh… yeah, Blake?"

"You don't have to turn away… I don't mind."

"Oh." _Crapbaskets, she caught me! How'd she know?! She never even looked up from her book!_ "O-Okay." A bright red blush heated Ruby's cheeks as she turned back to her girlfriend. This time, silver eyes were met with amber. The heat only grew warmer. "B-Blake?"

"Hm?"

"Y-You're staring…"

The smile lessened reluctantly. "Do you not want me to?"

"Nu-uh." Ruby shook her head slowly. "'s only fair…"

"Mhm."

Ruby was pretty sure that steam was about to come out of her ears under Blake's gaze, before doing the first thing that came to mind, namely to lean forward against Blake so they couldn't see each other. "Ruby?" Blake's voice had a tinge of amusement to it.

"…I want cuddles…"

Blake wordlessly pulled Ruby towards her, the small library chair straining slightly under the additional weight as the two tried to find a comfortable position before settling on Ruby sitting in her lap, her back pressed up against Blake's chest and, the faunus' arms wrapped around her. "Better?"

"Uh-huh." Ruby nodded contently as she basked in Blake's warmth. This was infinitely better than just watching her girlfriend. This was definitely the best part, Ruby decided, as her fingers intertwined with Blake's.

It was times like these that Ruby felt like a big teddy bear. Blake was wrapped around her, pulling her close, as if she was some kid scared of the dark, and holding onto her stuffed animal as tight as she could, afraid that she might let go. The difference, of course, was that Ruby – unlike a stuffed animal – held on just as tightly to the older teen as she was being held onto.

Wiggling slightly in her spot, Ruby nuzzled against Blake's neck, trying to find a slightly more comfortable way to be held while trying to figure out how they were going to finish the assignment wi-

A deep, content sound emanated from her girlfriend.

_Wait did I just hear…?_

The biggest, dopiest grin spread across Ruby's face as she heard it again. Ruby twisted around to look back up at Blake, "Did… did you just purr?"

The lack of any response as well as the growing redness in Blake's face as she looked away only confirmed it. Now _this_ was definitely the best part. "You totally did!"

"…maybe…" Before Ruby could see if she could get her girlfriend to make the sound again, Blake reached towards the stack of books with a shaky hand. "W-we should get back to studyi-"

"Nope!" Ruby wasn't going to let Blake get away from this that easily, and immediately nuzzled her neck again, causing Blake to jolt…

…and her outstretched arm to knock over the half full tea cup all over the centuries old tome that was opened.

"…crapbaskets."

* * *

AU: Hey look, I did a cute! This is cute… I think? Yeah, probably

So I was hoping to release this chapter about two hours ago, which clearly didn't happen. But I finally got it done, so yay? Yeah, let's go with yay.

If you can't figure out, this is partly inspired by real life. Apparently the library near me has books you can check out that were printed in the 1800s, though I know I can check one from the 1790s. Which is freaking when you think about it. Also old pages smell like old Chinese… it's not a pleasant smell, that's for damn sure!

OH! ALSO WE GOT TO 1000 FOLLOWERS _AND_ REVIEWS AFTER LAST CHAPTER! WOOHOO!

_Acceptance_ just needs me to get a final edit or two (after spending more hours than I'd like to admit on a single paragraph… not writing it, but editing it) and I'll post in about 90 minutes to two hours.

That's… that's all I got for now, see you in a few hours for the next update!

For those who only read _Dilation_, I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you for reading! :D


	82. The Little Things IV

"Watcha ya reading?"

Inquisitive silver eyes stared up at Blake, boring deep into her soul, causing the words to fumble haphazardly out of her mouth as she awkwardly tried to nonchalantly conceal the book in her lap.

"A book?"

Ruby rolled her eyes, "Well, duh! What's it about?"

Blake hesitated out of concern.

It wasn't concern about Ruby being too immature for the content – quite the contrary, in fact; _Ruby is far more mature than most people think… if she wasn't then we would most likely not be together. Indeed, she'd be able to understand immediately what it was._ So that was not the reason she was withholding the title of her book or its contents. Rather, to the untrained eye, this particular book series might seem particularly low-brow, perhaps even vulgar if one couldn't understand the genius of it… and Blake didn't want to do the coin flip and have the chance that Ruby might not take too kindly to her favourite book series.

Or the fact that she did not want to have her girlfriend catch her reading smut. Either or, really.

"Blake?" Time was quickly evaporating – the longer she took to say something, say anything, the more curious it was going to make Ruby on why her girlfriend didn't just give a straight answer right away.

"It's about…" Amber eyes darted before finally settling on the rest of her literary collection. "…romance."

Ruby's head tilted ever so slightly. "Like book you were reading when we first met? Um, the _Man with Two Souls_?"

"I guess I was reading that the night before initiation," Blake mumbled after doing the mental calculation for when she had read that particular book – _wait, how does Ruby know that's a romance novel?_ _Questions for another time._ "…Y-yeah. Kind of like that one."

"Oh. Neat!" Ruby seemingly took it at face value, as Blake gave an internal sigh of relief. "Can I borrow it after you're done?"

"Uh…" Blake started to fidget nervously, her hands over the open book, pressing it harder into her lap, as if trying to push it out of existence. "You could…"

The Faunus could feel the excitement emanating off Ruby droop down as her expression mirrored it, becoming a frown. It was an expression that made Blake feel guilty for being more than a little standoffish. "I just don't think you would enjoy it much."

"Why's that?"

"Well… it's embarrassing…" _and it is smut…_

For some reason, Blake had trouble imagining Ruby enjoying that kind of fiction – _she always likes stories with action and heroes and heroines – I don't think she'd like the heroes and heroines having action with each other._ Naturally, an opposing thought surfaced to the forefront of Blake's mind, _maybe I'm wrong, maybe she would like that sort of thing. _With that thought a rush of heat swelled in Blake as her face became bright red.

_There is only one way to find out_, amber eyes looked up only to find Ruby equally red face, her silver eyes focused solely on the floor between them. "Don't worry, Blake. I understand why it'd be embarrassing," the younger teen murmured.

"Y-you do?" Blake asked after she finished gaping in shock, _how does she know about it?! I thought I was careful!_

"Yeah, I'll read something else instead… is the _Man with Two Souls II_ still between the beds?"

A relieved smile stretched Blake's lips; _I'd rather deal with accidentally toppling the bunkbeds any day than explain what Ninjas of Love is about to Ruby!_

Of course, the natural conclusion popped into her head from that thought – it was a notion that made her ears droop; Ruby already knows what I'm reading…

Somehow, that was more mortifying to Blake than explaining would have been.

* * *

Ruby knew the second that Blake's face had turned redder than her cloak what that book really was about – why Blake was being so hesitant about letting her read it.

A romance plot, the huge blush on Blake's face, the happy smile that was on her lips when Ruby had walked into the room, the hesitation… a thought had popped into the younger teen's head, one that explained everything with a clear logic.

_What if the book is about two girls… and one of them is a ninja who likes tuna and the other has a big red cloak…_

The black and red design of the cover only reinforced that particular assessment, plus, Ruby could easily see how it could be embarrassing – _it'd be like reading about us!_ Just thinking about all the times they'd done stuff together, or cuddled, brought a huge blush and a dopey smile to her own face, much like how Blake had looked. It made perfect sense!

_Now if I could just find where I left Blake's book…_ Ruby had made a quick trip to grab some snacks to munch on while reading but couldn't for the life of herself remember where she'd left it. _Did I put it back in the bookshelf?_ Ruby started to dig through the numerous books, accidentally knocking off a few of the ones lying on top of the shelf over. "Crapbaskets!"

If there was one thing that Blake liked more than tuna, it was her books. Consequently, she always treated them with care, like the treasured possessions that they were. Gingerly picking up the few that had fallen and checking for damages was her first reaction, naturally. Relief flooded her when she found none.

However, Ruby couldn't help and stop stare when a three page fold-out of some fantasy ninja holding the best, most beautiful katana that she had ever seen in her life unfurled from the middle of one of the books. She couldn't help it when her eyes started to wander to where the image met the pages of the book…

Nor could she help it when her silver eyes read a word. And then another word. Then another. And then some more.

Bashfully, she glanced at the title of the book. "Ninjas, eh?" Ruby glanced around, still unable to find the book she had been reading before looking back down at her cookies which were becoming cold, and her milk which was becoming lukewarm.

"I guess...it wouldn't hurt to read it a little bit, just until I find the other book."

* * *

AU: I finally got off my lazy butt and did a chapter, yay!

I really don't have much else to say today… life has been busy. I could say the typical "I PROMISE TO WRITE MORE CHAPTERS THIS MONTH" but I realistically know I won't. I know I'll get at least a chapter out per month, maybe two. Anymore is just a surprise at this point :P

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


	83. The Little Things V

"Ruby?"

Silver eyes blearily blinked up at her girlfriend, sleepy silver eyes meeting tired amber ones. "Wha," Ruby gave a shaky yawn, "what's up?"

"…"

Blake's mouth opened and closed, whatever she was saying dying in her throat before she stopped. Despite her curiosity, Ruby quietly waited, comfortably cocooned in blankets and Blake's arms; _if she has something to say, she'll say it. _

"What did you think of me when we first met?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, "Um… what?"

"When we first met, the day before initiation," Blake said slowly, in a measured tone.

"I… uh…" Ruby scratched her head, her head dipping down for a moment. "Um, I guess I really wish that you hadn't walked away and left me in a crater?"

Amusement twinkled in Blake's eyes for a second, "Really?"

"…also maybe-kinda-sorta that you got Weiss to stop yelling me, so that was pretty cool too…" Ruby shyly added after a moment, eliciting a low chuckle from the Faunus. "What, um, did you think of me?"

The faint smile that had been gracing Blake's lips vanished. "Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"That you were perhaps a bit naïve."

"Aww." Ruby gave a huge pout, complete with puppy-dog eyes, "I was hoping that you'd say you thought I was really, really cool and you wanted to be my friend and partner."

Blake's eyes widened, "Did you actually want me to be your partner?"

Ruby was taken aback by the incredulity in her girlfriend's voice, as if she couldn't possibly believe in that idea. "Yeah…? I mean, I only knew you, Yang, Weiss and Jaune… and you were cool and mysterious and liked books… you were my second choice after Yang in case someone got her first…" Ruby gave a very pointed stare at Blake, albeit with no real edge to it.

Amber eyes met the stare head-on. "So your first and second choices picked each other."

"Yeah… what about you?" The pointed stare melted into curiosity, "Who did you want to partner up with?"

Blake's eyes didn't meet Ruby's, as she glanced away, "…another faunus…"

"Oh." Ruby blinked. "Getting into a team with Weiss was kinda the opposite, wasn't it?"

"A bit." A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "But I did end up with you, so I'd call that a success." Ruby felt heat flush her cheeks into a bright red, as she mumbled something out and hugged Blake's torso tighter.

"Do you think this would have happened, if I hadn't found Yang?" Ruby had to strain her ears to hear the quiet question.

"What would have happened?" Blake's response came in the form of her arms squeezing Ruby for a moment.

"Weiss, Yang… you, what we are."

"…oh!" It was a thought that Ruby didn't particularly want to entertain; _what if Yang had gotten a different partner or they had picked a different relic…_ "Um… I don't know…"

Silence greeted Ruby.

"Is, um, is that what's on your mind?"

Black tresses shifted as Blake nodded ever so slightly. "Somewhat." Ruby had no immediate response to that, her own eyes were downcast, staring at the bedsheets.

"But, it didn't happen." Ruby's voice felt small, almost child-like, "and we're together, so it doesn't matter… I think?"

"I suppose so…"

"It's just a what-if, right?" Ruby insistently wiggled in Blake's arms. "We're here right now. Together."

Blake remained unconvinced, moreover, she looked stressed out in Ruby's eyes, her ears sadly drooping. Stressed out enough that she probably wouldn't be able to sleep, or couldn't go back to sleep.

Luckily for Blake, Ruby had a solution. A solution that she could only provide.

Slowly, untangling her arms from around Blake, she reached up, her hands coming to rest on the pair of exposed cat ears on top of Blake's head. Gently, ever so gently, she started to rub them. The effect was magical.

With each gentle touch, tension seeped out of Blake, her brow unfurrowing, her frown lessening. Or her muscles that Ruby haven't noticed being tensed up slowly relaxed. It almost looked like Blake was going from being a startled cat, no, a cornered cat, to happy one, as she let out a satisfied purr-

Ruby's hands jolted away as if they had been burned, Blake's eyes darting to look at Ruby. Ruby, in turn, looked like she – and felt like – had just realized that the semester project was due yesterday and she hadn't even started yet.

"Am I racist?" Before Blake could ask the question that was clearly on the tip of her tongue, Ruby blurted it out.

"Come again?"

Amber eyes incredulously focused on Ruby. "Am I racist?"

"…"

Blake's mouth open and closed like a fish.

"I really, really like your kitty ears, and I always try save you extra tuna at the cafeteria whenever they have it- which is really bad because you're a faunus, and I just sorta-kinda realized that its really racist and-… and…"

Ruby trailed off, as Blake's whole body started to shake, her hands clamped around her mouth. Yet it was clear _why_, as mirth twinkled in her eyes. _Blake's laughing?_

"No, no you aren't Ruby."

"Are… are you sure?"

Worry ate at Ruby, as Blake rolled her eyes, "Very."

"O-okay…"

"Ruby." Silver eyes met amber ones. "It's fine. I like it that you like my ears… and save me tuna."

"Yay!" A relieved smile lit up Ruby's face, as she hugged Blake.

"Ruby?"

"Yes, Blake?"

"…could you rub my ears again?"

* * *

AU: Hey look, cute fluff. Neato.

The long and short of it, is that essentially Blake had a bad dream. I realized that Blake wouldn't say that out loud, but that is why she is so stuck on the negative thoughts - she just experienced it in dream form. Alternatively, if I had done it from Blake's POV, either we get a crummy dream sequence oooor an overbearing amount of angst as well as a shitty transition into her talking to Ruby. So, yeah. This is what we get instead.

Thank you all for reading, the next update will be in a few hours for _Acceptance_, and for those who don't read it, I hope you have a wonderful day! :D (and those who do read it, I still hope you have a wonderful day :P )


	84. The Little Things VI

**Buzz**

Blake flipped open her scroll as the ever familiar vibration of a new message lit up the screen. Naturally the message was from Ruby, as all of the previous texts of the day had been.

Blake's lips quirked upwards into a faint smile as she read the message; Ruby had evidently gotten to the next twist in the book she'd suggested and in turn the text was filled with mostly surprised or shocked emoticons, with the only words – well, words that weren't some form of face, that is – merely read out the title of the next chapter.

While Blake would have much rather had been with her girlfriend, watching her reactions – between reading her own book, naturally, whilst having Ruby cuddled up in her lap – she was sadly pulled away from her team leader on this particular day. Or rather, less pulled away, and more… shanghaied, to be more specific, by said girlfriend's elder sister, i.e. Yang.

"Blaaake, we're hanging out!" The blonde pouted with a fake sadness, mirth ever present in her eyes. "We're not at the dorms so Ruby _doesn't_ distract you!" The statement came out more accusatory than Yang probably intended as lilac eyes pointedly focused on the scroll in Blake's hands.

Yet Blake stood her ground, amber eyes steadily staring back in defiance as she typed out a quick response. "So I should ignore your little sister, is what you are telling me?"

Yang let out an exasperated sigh, chin slumping off her hands and thudding against the table. "No, but c'mon on Blakey! You said you could hang out, and we're even at this fancy tea place that you like so much, but every time Ruby texts you, you go straight to your phone."

Blake's lips quirked into a thin line. "Sorry, what were we talking about, again?"

"We WERE talking about bumblebee, remember?" Blonde hair swayed as she shook her head. "Anyways, I was thinking about supercharging the engine, especially after-"

**Buzz**

Blake's hand automatically started to reach for her scroll, only to find empty air as a yellow streak flashed, before coming to rest in Yang's seat, now in possession of the faunus' scroll.

Blake rolled her eyes. "Give it back Yang."

"Nope!~"

"Yang."

"Yes, Blak- hey!"

Yang pulled back just in time, dodging by twisting her body by reflex as the dark shape of her partner lunged at her, narrowly missing by a very slim margin. "Nope!"

A scowl settled across Blake's face. "She's going to get angry at you if you don't let me text."

Yang gave an uncaring shrug, eyes closed. "Eh. She'll be fine for ten minutes. Probably." One eye opened, staring at Blake with a certain calculating nature. "Unless you're the one who can't last for ten minutes…"

"I can go for ten minutes," Blake retorted in a stand-offish tone, already defensive. It was a tone that didn't go unnoticed.

"I'll bet you ten lien that you can't." Yang playfully stuck out her tongue before settling into a infuriating smirk.

Amber eyes narrowed. "That's easy."

"Well then, put your money where your mouth is."

"Fine." _That's enough to buy a new book, this will be way too easy._

"Great! Anywho, as I was saying, bumblebee-"

**Buzz**

By instinct Blake started to reach out towards her pocket, only to find nothing, her thoughts catching up to her a moment later. _Control, you can do this Blake. Just ten minutes, it'll be easy._

Her partner, however, continued talking as if she hadn't noticed that the scroll that she was holding was vibrating so loudly it sounded almost like its ringer was set on loud. Yet Blake could tell that Yang was sizing her up, seeing if she was going to crack under the pressure. Which she wasn't. The feline Faunus was made of sterner stuff than what her friend was giving her credit for, and so she ignored the sound.

Yet as Yang went on about her thoughts of what to do to her motorcycle, the words went in one ear and out the other… well, one of the others, as Blake was lost in thought. _What if Ruby got to the part where the heroine's father comes back only to die? Or when she rescues the man trapped in the boat? Or when the cat comes to the heroine's rescue, saving her from certain doom?_ It was very much an instance of curiosity killing the cat, as the thoughts bombarded Blake, the torturous curiosity making it seem like ten minutes had become an entirety.

While the inquisitiveness to where Ruby was at was quite high, it paled in comparison to Blake's want to see what Ruby thought of each of these events. To see how her adorable girlfriend reacted to one of her favourite books – outside Ninjas' of Love, of course. _That_ was what was getting to Blake. The want to know if she enjoyed the book as much as Blake did, to see if she should start digging out the rest from her bookshelf, or if she should steel herself to never talking about it again. Conversely, if Ruby was going to become as much of a diehard fan as Blake had become.

**Buzz**

Amber eyes pivoted to the device, eyeing it with something almost resembling fear. Hopelessness. Defeat. _This is torture!_

Blake quietly slid Yang a ten lien note, before snatching her scroll back, practiced fingers already flicking the display open, her eyes already reading the reactions she had missed.

It was worth the ten lien.

* * *

AU: True story; this is me and any friend of mine that does pretty much any book/video game/anime that I'm into. It happens a lot.

I think it's been just about a million years since I last posted a chapter for _Dilation_, so here is a new chapter to rectify that, huzzah! Next chapter should be much sooner, I hope. Maybe.

_Acceptance_ should be out in a hour and a half, give or take!

Thank you for reading, I hope you have a wonderful day! :D


	85. Cheated

"Blakeeee, wake up!"

Ruby gently shook her girlfriend, trying to rouse her from her slumber.

If there was one thing Blake was not, well, one of them at least, it was a morning person. She was definitely one of those people who were more geared towards night time activities, like reading in the soft glow of candle light.

Of course, Ruby felt a bit guilty waking Blake up when the teen clearly wanted nothing to do with the waking world, giving a soft groan before curling up against Ruby's form. As cute as that might be – which was very, very cute and comfortable – there were things to do today, classes to attend, monsters to slay, cookies to consume with a vacuum like efficiency.

It was while her mind was occupied with things of such grave importance, particularly the last one, that Blake finally started to move, stretching out. Which didn't account for Ruby looming overhead; their' head's lightly bopping into each other, before Blake hoarse apologized, and sleepily make her way to the bathroom. Leaving Ruby alone.

However, Ruby was frozen in place, the gears in her head no longer turning, as the scene replayed again. And again. And again.

Blake's forehead wasn't the only thing that touched Ruby's face.

Ruby licked her lips, the faint taste of something foreign yet faintly familiar was present.

_Did we just kiss?_

A red blush lit up Ruby's face as her emotions went into overdrive. _Holy shit we just kissed._

Silver eyes blinked._ Sorta. Kinda. Our lips just pressed together. By accident. Yup. Totally an accident. _For all the hype that was given to that particular outlet of affection, it was something that Ruby and Blake had never done before. Something that Ruby, if she was being honest, was a bit too much of a chicken to take the first step in.

But that was definitely a kiss.

Somehow, Ruby hadn't imagined her first kiss being so… mundane. Or being not even as half as world-shattering as every piece of media made it out to be.

In fact, Ruby felt nothing.

That wasn't _completely_ true; Ruby was certainly feeling a lot of emotions, particularly ones associated with adrenaline, as her heart was just about to leap out her throat at the moment. Perhaps the most prominent of these was disappointment.

Disappointment that it was not the end all, be all experience that she may have day-dreamed it would be, especially with someone as special to her heart as Blake. It didn't even feel that much different from when her face was pressed against her girlfriend's arm when they cuddled, albeit a bit more wet.

But that was it.

Ruby felt cheated.

The door to the bathroom squeaked open.

"Do you want the next showe- …Ruby?"

Blake's entrancing voice was filled with concern, as Ruby more or less shook in the spot that her girlfriend had left her in. The moment that Blake's hand touched her shoulder, the spell was broken, with Ruby spinning around to face the faunus.

"Hey Blake?" There was a slight tremor to Ruby's voice, albeit a hint of excitement to it as well, as she could barely hear her own thoughts over the pounding of her heart, louder than it had been just a mere few seconds ago because of what she was about to say.

"Ruby, you're worrying me." Amber eyes regarded Ruby, Blake's lips creasing into a frown, as she sat down on the bed next to her. "What's wrong?"

"Well, um." Silver eyes strayed down to the sheets, deciding that was the safest place to look. "When we, uh… bumped heads… we kinda… uh… kissed?"

"Oh." A deep crimson lit up Blake's face, when Ruby stole a glance, though her eyes were still solely focused on her. "I didn't mean t-"

"Could-we-maybe-kiss-again?!"

Ruby squeezed her eyes closed, not knowing why, other than embarrassment, only to open when arms loosely came to rest against her back, the tickle of someone's breathe against her face as the bed creaked from movement.

"I would love to."

Blake voice was barely above a whisper, yet Ruby was acutely aware of every single syllable she said.

"I'll put my hands here," Blake murmured, her arms encircling Ruby's waist. Ruby couldn't utter a word, her breath catching in her throat. "And you put your arms here…"

Blake inclined her head by a matter of degrees. Ruby's arms were wrapped around Blake a heartbeat later, drawn there without a thought, like a needle to the pole.

They stood still for several long moments, two heartbeats pounding in sync. Ruby's gaze met with Blake's for a moment, her focus firmly on listening to the melodious sounds of her breathing. "Feel ready?" Blake asked, her voice on the edge of audibility.

For one long, long second, Ruby's breathing stopped entirely. Then a ghost of a smile played across her face. "Ready," she promised, meeting Blake's gaze with her own.

And before Ruby could think, Blake pulled their lips together.

* * *

AU: They were late for class because they were smooching.

Hey, I actually got off my lazy ass and updated, imagine that! Quick shoutout to Liara for suggesting the final part of the chapter… I was a bit stumped, yay for editors?

BUT YES, ACTUAL PROGRESS, I ALMOST FORGOT WHAT THAT FELT LIKE? Seriously, its been nearly a year since actual progression occurred I think. I might start speeding it up if my interest sticks with it. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be hopeful.

I basically just had an epiphany that I could be writing this and so I did? Yay? I suppose?

I hope it was worth the wait… only 28 months into this story and 85 chapters before the first kiss.

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D


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